LAT: Federal Incentives Help Fuel a Run on Hybrids

[DeepModem Mom]

Federal Incentives Help Fuel a Run on Hybrids
July 23 2006
By Kathy M. Kristof

Forget dealer incentives for a moment. A motorist who is thinking about buying a hybrid vehicle this summer can factor a tax credit of as much as $3,400 into the purchase decision....

"In the past, you would have sold the car before you'd break even on the gas savings," said Paul Taylor, chief economist at the National Automobile Dealers Assn. in McLean, Va.

But international events have pushed the price of crude oil — and gasoline — ever higher. The new tax credits, Taylor said, help to "really change the economics."...

Though the credits are claimed at tax time, not when purchasing a car at the dealership, buyers are responding in droves....

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Hybrid sales jumped 26% in the first six months of 2006 compared with a year earlier, with 116,994 hybrid cars and light trucks sold through June. That double-digit sales gain was especially impressive because 2005 was a record year. There's been a fourfold increase in hybrid sales since 2001, when hybrid vehicles became widely available, according to the national dealers association....

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-perfin23jul23,0,3806955,full.column?coll=la-home-business