Polk's study tracked repurchase rates of consumers in eco-friendly markets -- including Los Angeles; San Francisco; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; and San Diego, among others -- and discovered that those customers were only slightly more loyal to hybrid vehicles than the nation at large. The top eco-friendly market, West Palm Beach, Fla., had a repurchase rate of 43.2 percent.
Plache of Edmunds.com said that even among groups known for their environmental consciousness, hybrid purchase rates aren't always high:
People talk about the 'Gen Ys' on the market, and how much more concerned they are about doing the environmentally friendly thing. But when you look at the cost of hybrids and electrics, the differences are often too great. Unless the numbers are there, it's hard to justify making that purchase for the purpose of saying, 'I'm living greener.'
In the future, sales of full hybrids may be affected by "partial-hybrid" technology, such as start-stop systems. In those cases, consumers will be able to get some of the benefits of hybrids with lower initial costs, Plache said. "As CAFÉ standards increase, you're going to see more and more automakers adding hybrid 'parts' to their cars. At some point, the line between hybrids and conventional vehicles will be less distinct than it is today."
In the meantime, Polk will continue to watch gasoline prices and work closely with its customers to analyze its impact on hybrid sales. Smith said to date, gas prices have had little or no impact on hybrid segment loyalty.
There's no clear-cut answer to the fuel price concerns of today. Until there's a more definitive answer on what the technology of tomorrow will be, consumers will continue to make purchases based on what's comfortable. And today, that's still gasoline.
Related posts:
For a close-up look at GM's Chevy Volt, go to the Drive for Innovation site and follow the cross-country journey of EE Life editorial director, Brian Fuller.
FrankWye : I know what determines a country, and it is not the politcal sturcture or entity. It the commonality of culture of the people and shared resources.
That is why Yugoslavia should still be the country, and not Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia. That was a horrific mistake, which lead to lots of ethnic cleansing. Just as the artificial separation of India and Pakistan.
And if you would argue Palestine should not be a country because it is composed of Greeks, Akkadians, Phoenicians, Jews, etc., you would be wrong, not only because they are intertwined in geography, but because they share so much culture.
It is Israel that should not be a country, because it defines nothing. It is a incompatible merger of disparate Ashkenazi, Shephardic, and Hassidic cultures, on Arab land, that attempts to claim religion as the basis, when there are historically more Muslims and Christians than Jews there.
{ ... The Mandatory shall be responsible for placing the country [ Palestine] under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish National Home, as laid down in the preamble, and the development of self-governing institutions, and also for safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion."10 (Article 2) ... }
Clearly it is calling for the Jewish National Home to be within the Arab governed Palestine. It would have to be. That is because even with the millions of Jewish immigrants, the population was over two thirds Arab. So while you can declare a country to be a national homeland, where members of that ethnic culture could always be allowed in and find a home, they could never be allowed to rule.
The minority, especially a non-indigenous recent imported population, can never rule. That should be obvious.
And clearly that is what all documents say. At not time was there ever legally supposed to be an independent Jewish nation. It makes no sense and violates the normal definitions of legal conventions.
Yes, what the UN did was probably illegal. The allies had promised the Palestinians independence, that was the right thing to do, and the UN had no right to give half of Palestine to recent, illegal, European immigrants.
FrankeWye : You wrote, "So, if I get the majority of people in my neighborhood to sign a declaration, we can become our own country?"
I don't get it, because that would make no sense if the majority of the people in your neighborhood were not indigenous, or were not the major culture in the larger, country sized entity.
That has no bearing on Palestine, which clearly is composed of indigenous people, is of country size, and was only prevented from previously being an independent country by Turkmen invaders. It has all the qualities necessary to be a country.
"The Mandatory shall be responsible for placing the country [ Palestine] under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish National Home, as laid down in the preamble, and the development of self-governing institutions, and also for safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion."10 (Article 2)
YES! These is a law that countries can only be made according to the indigenous people. It was an unwritten law when this country revolted from England, is what the Declaration of Independence was based on, and has been written into everything since then.
The majority of Arabs left because they were being robbed, raped, and murdered.
The Palestinian Arabs took no part in any of the hostilities, not only because they were unarmed, but because they had absolutely no military training, and because they had families and livestock to take care of.
In contrast, the Zionist gangs were all hardened veterans, fully armed with the latest US weapons, like tanks, bombers, artillery, machine guns, etc.
FrankWye : Small correction, in that only individuals have rights. And they are inherent. States have authority delegated to them by individuals, based on individual rights. So the federal government can also have delegated authority, as long as it does not conflict with that delegated to state governments.
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A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
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