Hybrid Vehicles - a car buff seeking automotive redemption

I sat down this morning and looked over my last 14 posts. Universally positive, feel-good hybrid vibes oozing from every pore. I started to feel a little bit easy - saccharine worked for Disney - but had I lost the hard hitting edge that first gave me the impetus to investigate hybrids?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a paid up member of the hybrid vehicle obsessives. I’ve got the bumper sticker, and the fluffy hybrid dangle for my front mirror, and the last 12 months of Green Car Magazine on the passenger seat.

But I started to think that I was guilty of one of the sins that I’ve blamed on many other hybrid vehicle pundits - universally positive doesn’t sell. We pretty much only have one chance to achieve the deep-seated cultural change that will make Hybrid Vehicle ownership a fact of life for Americans. If we create false expectations - we are going to end up with a pull of dissatisfied, negative ambassadors for the Hybrid Car movement.

We need to be realistic about the limitations of Hybrid cars - and I intend to do that in our very next post.

I’ve received a few comments about the sign-up form that appeared on the top-right hand corner of my blog.

I decided to start an email-list because there are some more focussed and detailed resources about hybrid cars that don’t necessarily lend themselves to blogging. People who sign up will receive commentary and links to a wide range of interviews, video, audio and other resources. Signing up also entitles you to free access to "62 ways to beat the gas pump monster" - an ebook chock full of money and environment saving tips.

The blog is an opportunity for me to discuss latest news and happenings in the hybrid car world.

I would encourage you to sign up to both!

It seems as if the Virginian government is looking at rolling back an exemption aimed at allowing Hybrid car owners to make use of car-pooling lanes even when in a single occupancy vehicle.

Since 2000, hybrid vehicle owners have had unrestricted use of HOV 3 lanes. A rapid increase in hybrid car ownership has lead to reports that the car-pooling lanes are sometimes more congested than normal lanes.

The situation has reportedly become so terrible that traffic authorities are not recommending its renewal at the end of 2006.

Giving some explanatory context to the issue, one Virginian car yard owner said that up to 95% of people who purchased hybrid vehicles did so because of the HOV 3 exemption and the tax-break.

A couple of things immediately struck me after reading the news:

1) This kind of non-financial incentives can have a direct and measurable impact on hybrid vehicle uptake.

2) They will not always be sustainable - and maybe we need to be careful to see them in that way. Creating expectations of permanent entitlement could lead to disappointment, anger and frustration if changes like this happen in the future.