US Hybrid Cars? M.I.A.

[hatrack]

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"So where are the U.S.-made hybrids? They're coming, insist American carmakers. Only no one seems to know exactly when.

Ford appears to be the first American company that will debut a hybrid, with an already-delayed 2004 rollout of a hybrid version of its light SUV model, the Escape. But even that launch is starting to look uncertain as rumors of technical problems threaten to delay its completion. Daimler Chrysler has already scrapped its own plans for a Durango SUV hybrid, and it doesn't have any firm release dates for a replacement.

General Motors recently hedged on its own plans to release a Prius-like vehicle, pushing the release date back by another two years until 2007, reported the New York Times last week. The company, which has invested nearly $1 billion in fuel cell technology research and ambitiously claims it will sell 1 million fuel-cell cars by 2020, has reportedly shifted its hybrid focus from smaller compact cars to recognizing a better business case for installing hybrid engines on larger SUVs.

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GM's strategy, while bypassing hybrids in the short run, might make sense long-term. As hybrids become more common in the U.S. market, J.D. Power's report expects trucks and SUVs to account for the majority of hybrid sales by 2008. Yet even that prediction is open to speculation. If gas prices remain relatively cheap, there could be little incentive for the typical SUV buyer to opt for a hybrid."

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http://www.tidepool.org/original_content.cfm?articleid=97080

[La_Serpiente]

1. Hybrid? American?

Aren't the Japanese already sending THEIR cars over? I am buying theirs because I am fed up with American automakers.