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Hi everyone, I hope the summer has treated you well. With Congress in recess, I’ve finally had the time to complete a needed updating of our HybridCenter.org website. In this issue of our newsletter, I’ll walk you through some of the updates and give you a taste of all the places I’ve tweaked our “one-stop shop” on hybrids. Remember—this website is supposed to be a valuable resource for you and other clean car shoppers, activists, and clean vehicle enthusiasts—so be sure to let me know what you think!
Enjoy your Labor Day,
Scott Nathanson
UCS National Field Organizer &
HybridCenter.org Administrator
In this issue:
 After our big fuel economy win in the Senate, August marked the passage of a House Energy Bill that included no fuel economy provision at all. Our Washington Representative Eli Hopson fills you in on the details here on HybridBlog, but sufficive to say that we ended up fighting the automakers to a draw in the House. With the Democratic House leadership in favor of strong standards, we have a good shot at seeing something meaningful in the final energy bill—but it’s going to take some serious work, as the latest scare tactic by the automakers suggests.
One of our most popular HybridCenter.org features has been our hybrid Comparison Chart and Buyer’s Guide, where you can get a lot of detailed information on different hybrid models and how they might stack up if you were behind the wheel. As you might expect, we’ve updated the chart to include all the current models available (we’re just awaiting the official stats on the Mazda Tribute Hybrid and the new two-mode hybrids from GM). But here are a few more interesting tidbits that you might find useful and/or interesting:
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Price Drops & Mileage Hikes: Interesting to note that three models, the Mercury Mariner Hybrid, Ford Escape Hybrid, and Toyota Camry Hybrid all dropped their price. The Escape and Mariner Hybrids did so while tricking themselves out a bit more and getting a 14 percent boost in fuel economy. On the flip side, the retooled Highlander Hybrid offers a fun little “electric drive” feature enabling you to go for around a mile on just the battery, but technological improvements in efficiency were sacrificed to make the vehicle larger, so its fuel economy stayed the same.
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New Fuel Economy Numbers: Speaking of fuel economy, you’ll note that for all models, we are using the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) revised fuel economy numbers now. This includes older models such as the Generation 1 Civic Hybrid and Prius, as well as the Insight. While these numbers have come down to be more in line with what most drivers experience, when you look at how the numbers have come down, hybrids are not actually suffering anything more than a rhetorical disadvantage, something I noted in last month’s newsletter.
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EPA Global Warming Scores: While we retained the personalized estimates on the carbon footprint of each hybrid model, we did note that the EPA has come up with a 1-10 scale for global warming pollution like it does for smog-forming emissions. So, for a quick and easy comparative, we have included the global warming score as well as the smog forming scores in the Comparison Chart.
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The First Negative Rating on the Buyer’s Guide: With the coming of the muscle hybrid inevitably comes some bad news at the pump. I went over to our Buyer’s Guide to see how the Lexus LS 600h L stacks up and the news isn’t good—it came out a net loser when compared to a conventional midsize car. With a five year lease and gas prices at $2.80, the 600h L lost more than $1,100 at the pump and 9 barrels of oil. The Lexus GS 450h barely came out on the positive side, saving a whopping $60 at the pump and half a barrel of oil in five years. For reference, the Prius comes out saving over $5,000 at the pump and 44 barrels of oil in the same time period.
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New Incentives and a New Consumer’s Landscape: I’ll tell you more about incentives later in the newsletter, but there’s a pretty good chance that if you go over to our Buyer’s Guide and enter in your state and vehicle type you’ll see either new incentives or at least new proposed incentives for your state. These incentives are part of the new landscape for prospective buyers since we first created this feature. Those that might have the opportunity to shop in different states, be it via proximity or online, should take advantage of the presence, and absence, of state and federal hybrid incentives in their negotiations with dealers. The days of scarce availability and having to sacrifice smog-forming emissions for fuel economy are over. Hopefully our revised tips can help you get the best deal on the vehicle you truly want, if you’re in the market.
There are a number of other tweaks, too, so go click away and check it all out.
 With Congress in recess, now is a great time to highlight what state and local governments have been up to in regards to hybrid vehicle perks.
In South Carolina, the state legislature overrode the governor’s veto in order to offer more incentives for the purchase of hybrids and other vehicles. As you may remember, the state established a state hybrid tax credit in 2006 equal to 20 percent of the federal hybrid tax credit, regardless of the federal hybrid tax credit phase-out. The state’s new incentives include a $300 sales tax rebate for the in-state purchase, between 2008 and 2013, of a hybrid vehicle, an electric vehicle, a plug-in hybrid vehicle, E85 capable flex-fuel vehicle, or a vehicle with an EPA city fuel economy rating of at least 30 miles per gallon (mpg). The flex-fuel addition to this list is particularly unfortunate given the paltry availability of E85 fuel, and this merely reinforces the dual-fuel loophole in federal fuel economy regulations. The most fuel efficient flex-fuel vehicle available, the Chrysler Sebring, would get approximately 16 mpg if run on today’s E85, and would emit almost twice the global warming pollution of a Toyota Prius.
Illinois earmarked two million dollars for its new "Green Rewards" program, which provides $1,000 rebates to state residents who purchase a hybrid or other fuel-efficient vehicle. Buyers must secure a car loan from a participating bank or credit union in order to qualify as the financial institution awards the rebate. In a recent Hybridblog.org entry, I pointed out a few shortcomings of this incentive:
First, it’s a flat $1,000 for any qualifying vehicle. Second, the qualifying vehicles are pretty much anything that calls itself a hybrid. So, amazingly enough, hollow hybrids like the GMC Sierra and Chevy Silverado “hybrid” pickups, and muscle hybrids like the Honda Accord Hybrid and Lexus GS 450h, will get buyers the same taxpayer money as buying a Prius, Escape Hybrid, or Civic Hybrid.
This incentive lacks any standard whatsoever. And standards make all the difference between policies that can push automakers and consumers into providing and purchasing better choices, and policies that just “do something” to try and be more environmentally sensitive (or at least appear that way). Simply put, policies without standards are usually a one-way ticket to ineffectiveness.
Other new hybrid perk proposals and laws include:
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Maryland voted once again to extend its vehicle emissions test and inspection exemption for qualified vehicles that achieve at least 50 mpg in city driving. Obviously, the state will have to reconsider its definition of “qualified vehicles” as the two vehicles that once qualified for the exemption (the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius) are no longer rated at least 50 mpg under the EPA’s new city fuel economy tests. The exemption, which originally passed in 2003, will expire in 2012.
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In Nevada’s Clark and Washoe counties, hybrid owners are exempt from emissions test and inspection requirements as long as their vehicles are no more than five years old.
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Manitou Springs, Colorado offers free parking to hybrid vehicles in the two city parking lots.
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Among the hybrid incentives proposed and passed in California, Belmont City’s hybrid incentive proposal might be the most unique. The city council is expected to consider offering a $500 credit towards city services for residents who purchase a hybrid or low emission vehicle.
You can learn more about these and other hybrid incentives by visiting the HybridCenter Incentives section.
One of our more recent additions to the HybridCenter is our Hybrid Timeline, where we trace the U.S. hybrid market from its first Insight through what reports say are coming down the pike in the next few years. Looking back at 2001 when hybrid sales first cracked the 20,000 mark—to 2006 where over 250,000 hybrids were sold—you can see the kind of shift there has been in this market since its inception.
 If you are like me and want to see hybrids really make a contribution to a reduction in oil use and emissions, 2007 has to be a bit of a concern. A majority of the models being introduced this year will be muscle hybrids, with only the limited release Nissan Altima Hybrid and the Mazda Tribute Hybrid working fuel economy first. Of course, this is the year that GM and Chrysler are rolling out their full size SUV hybrids, and both have devoted their two mode technology to muscle over miles.
 The future seems like a potentially mixed bag. One thing that continues to frustrate me is that the vast majority of these new offerings do not seem to be expanding the classes of vehicles being offered. The fact that Toyota’s current delays with developing new batteries makes it, to me, even more of a head-scratcher that they don’t look to their own existing hybrid fleet and expand their reputation by bringing a hybrid minivan to America. Aggressively expanding use and availability of current fuel-saving technologies, be they conventional or hybrid, to a larger number of vehicles, can contribute far more to providing oil and environmental security than just chasing after the next technological breakthrough.
 It looks like the subcompact Insight will be getting some replacements in the form of a sports car from Toyota, a sub-Civic class from Honda, as well as a possible Fit or CRX hybrid. I am anxiously awaiting America’s first foray into hybrid cars (rather than SUVs) which looks to be the Ford Fusion/Mercury Milan models. I think having an expanded lineup of hybrids, especially if they match or beat Toyota and Honda on fuel economy, could really give Ford far more of a sales and reputation boost than more flex-fuel vehicles, especially now that the word is getting out that more flex-fuel vehicles is no substitute for better fuel economy.
Of course, just over the horizon, are the plugin hybrids. Looks like we’ll soon have to bring the Chevy Volt out of the concept category and into the timeline, and Ford’s test fleets of plugin Escape Hybrids, and Toyota’s plugin Prius tests in both Japan and California, seem to indicate that the automakers are pushing each other in this category. No doubt commercialization hurdles remain, but this is certainly a market that bears watching.
- Rumored Toyota “Hybrid Drought”: As we reported last month, Toyota will likely delay the planned launch of a series of new and redesigned lithium-ion next-generation hybrids. Recent reports say that this may lead to Toyota launching only a few new hybrid vehicles during the upcoming years. If this is true it threatens to derail the company’s annual sales target (one million hybrids sold globally each year by early next decade). Toyota’s lithium ion next generation models, expected to hit the U.S. market starting in 2011, may include the redesigned Corolla, RAV4 SUV, Estima minivan, and Prius and Camry wagon hybrids. To learn more, visit the Hybrid News Center.
 GM Aims to Lead PHEV Race: General Motors Vice-Chairman Bob Lutz is confident that a new battery development contract with A123Systems Inc. will help the automaker ready the Chevy Volt Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) for production by late 2010. The company anticipates an October 2007 delivery of the next-generation lithium-ion battery packs and beginning PHEV prototype road tests next spring. It is rumored that GM’s model will have twice the range of the 20 miles per charge PHEV planned by Toyota. To learn more, visit the Hybrid News Center.
- Hybrid Train Debuts in Japan: Thanks to the popularity of hybrid cars, hybrid trains may be catching on. The East Japan Railway recently began regular passenger operation in rural Japan, marking the first time a diesel-electric hybrid train has been put into commercial service. Other railway companies, including Amtrak and Germany's Deutsche Bahn AG, are investing in hybrid locomotive technology. Nevertheless, as cost remains a major hurdle, efforts to green the railroad industry continue to focus on developing cleaner fuels for non-hybrid trains. To learn more, visit the Hybrid News Center.
 This new feature was born because we have continued to get a lot of good questions from DCN members and the public about issues that we have already handled, sometimes quite well, on our sister site: HybridBlog.org. I think people searching the HybridCenter sometimes don’t check our blog for answers, or some people simply “don’t do blogs.”
So, we’ve made it far easier for you to find the answers you’re looking for with our new “Best of the Blog” where we have not only culled the blog for those posts that we felt would have lasting value to folks looking for information on the hybrid market or cleaner vehicles. We’ve dated each blog, and also put a short summary of each one so you can quickly glean whether this might have information interesting to you. Many of our blogs have also had some interesting comments, so we’ve included a link back to the original post so you can see if anyone else has said something worth noting.
It’s been fun going back through the older blogs and rediscovering some of these interesting tidbits. I really liked going back and looking at both the original post, and the comments from the comparison of energy-saving light bulbs versus driving a Prius. There are also several blogs dealing with the debunked CNW Marketing Research Inc. study on hybrids’ environmental impact, culminating in our taking George Will to task. Go check out the new Best of the Blog homepage, as there’s a lot of useful information in them thar blogs!
Also, remember that our “freshest” blogs will remain on Hybridblog.org.
 William Farkas of Florence, MA has a Toyota Prius Gen. 1 that “effortlessly” gets 46-48 mpg. In his testimony, he jokes, “Remember, when people ask you what kind of mileage [your hybrid] gets, tell them ‘I dunno--I haven't filled it yet.’"
 Jonathan Allen of Brookline, MA loves his 2006 Honda Civic hybrid because it gets “45 mpg in winter driving and 75 mpg in summer driving between Boston and Framingham with stop-n-go all the way!”
 Judy Pike of Bisbee, AZ has three 2nd Generation Prius hybrids in her family’s fleet. She notes, “We put a lot of travel miles on our cars so we like to trade them in around 75,000 miles. But both of our trade-ins were in great condition and our daughter bought our 2005 model and kept it in the family!”
I also wanted to note that now that we’re a year into the Camry Hybrid and have more models like the Altima Hybrid, Mazda Tribute Hybrid, and the new GM two mode hybrids coming, it would be great to get more testimonials on those models to give consumers real-world perspectives. So if you own one of these models (or any hybrid model) or know of anyone who does, please tell them to submit their testimonials today!
Well, I hope you find our retooled HybridCenter a worthwhile tool. Enjoy your Labor Day, and gird up for more fuel economy fighting in Congress come September!
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