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.
So, should everyone leave America and leave it for the aboriginals? Are there any 100% "native" anymore? Is it first come first served or last here last keep?
So the fact that the Jews were enslaved before the Palestinians and lost their homeland means nothing, right.
Like I said what happened in 1930 was an atrocity. But all the subsequent attacks on Isreal are not about that. And, if someone kept launching missiles and sending suicide bombers at me I would hope that I would wipe them out before they wiped me out.
FrankWye : No, the Zionists attacked Arab villages like Dier Yassin FIRST. They started murdering Arabs in the 1930s. And the death rate has always been ove 10 Arabs murdered for every dead Israel. You know that not only from the statistics, but from the fact the Zionists had vastly superior weapons. They had bombers, fighter planes, and the latest tanks, while the Arabs mostly only had WWI surplus.
There is no democracy in Israel. If it were, then the vote would be to return the name to Palestine. Of the 10 million Arabs in Israeli occupied areas, only a half million are allowed to vote.
If you read more than one small sound bite, you would know that Cater was referring to the occupied territories as being Apartheid. The fact is 5 million immigrant Jews dictate to 10 million indigenous Arabs, and occupy over 90% of their land.
The fact the Ottoman Empire prevented there from being a Palestine country, does not mean it should not be. It is Israel that should not exist, because it is always wrong to take land from the indigenous people, and it is always wrong to bad a country on religion or culture. It is Israel that was created by terrorism and requires terrorism to exist.
If you are anti-American/freedom its bribery (the $ given to Egypt.)
If you are a civil person it about: ...Since her appointment as U.S. ambassador to Cairo in March 2011, Anne Patterson has been the target of numerous attacks in the Egyptian press. The campaign against her was stepped up following her declaration, at her nomination hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in June of that year, that the U.S. had channeled some $40 million to civil society organizations in Egypt with the aim of advancing democracy in the country. Indeed, the issue of foreign funding of civil society organizations ultimately led to a crisis in U.S.-Egypt relations.
Since the establishment of limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the mid-1990s, the U.S. government has committed over $4 billion in bilateral assistance to the Palestinians, who are among the world's largest per capita recipients of international foreign aid. Successive Administrations have requested aid for the Palestinians to support at least three major U.S. policy priorities of interest to Congress:
• Combating, neutralizing, and preventing terrorism against Israel from the Islamist group Hamas and other militant organizations. • Creating a virtuous cycle of stability and prosperity in the West Bank that inclines Palestinians—including those in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip— toward peaceful coexistence with Israel and prepares them for self-governance. • Meeting humanitarian needs and preventing further destabilization, particularly in the Gaza Strip.
Since June 2007, these U.S. policy priorities have crystallized around the factional and geographical split between the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
AND WHY IS IT THAT--Arab states have made relatively small annual contributions.? Nobody really wants peace because it is so useful to use it to hate on the US.
If the Arab world didn't gather to attack Isreal they would not have tried to defend themselves. Of course, there was a few extremist Zionists that did commit attrocities and that should be condemned, but that is nowhere near the attrocities commited against Isreal. The imposibility is that Isreal can never have a "guarantee" of security like Carter suggests.
About "Apartheid" in the title of his book, Carter has said:
"It's not Israel. The book has nothing to do with what's going on inside Israel which is a wonderful democracy, you know, where everyone has guaranteed equal rights and where, under the law, Arabs and Jews who are Israelis have the same privileges about Israel. That's been most of the controversy because people assume it's about Israel. It's not.[5]
"I've never alleged that the framework of apartheid existed within Israel at all, and that what does exist in the West Bank is based on trying to take Palestinian land and not on racism. So it was a very clear distinction."[6]
This helps prove about what I said about Isreal being a decent place to live, no matter who or what religion. Those that stayed and chose to live there are at peace. Those that chose to join in the War are not. And, there was never a country of Palestine.
Do you understand the concept of "country", not region? Countries usually have international borders and a president or dictator, etc. Before Isreal was peritted to re-incorporate there was no country of Palestine or Ruler of Palestine.
The problem with elitist liberal christians is that they think that giving in to demands will solve the problem. While it can on a personal level it hardly ever does with national(and international) problems.
FrankWye : If Zinoists had not massacred innocent Arab civilians like a Dier Yassin, and had not tried to illegally establish an independent Israel in land legally bound to Palestine, there would have been no problem. Israel should have remained a homeland within an Arab Palestine, as the treaties established. But there is no "freedom" in Israel. Ask anyone who is known to be fair, like Jimmy Carter:
We gave billions to Egypt in order to bribe them. But no more.
And no, we never gave billions to Palestine.
The few hundred million we gave Palestine did not even cover water and gargage collection. They can't side with Russia or China because they are blocked from international access by Israel.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
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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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