Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Study Casts Doubt On Green Vehicle Demand

Despite a huge amount of funding given to electric and hybrid vehicle manufacturers by venture capitalists, a new study from Westlake Village-based J.D. Power and Associates finds that the outlook for "green" vehicles will remained "limited" for some time. J.D. Power released the results of its 2011 U.S. Green Automotive Study, saying that automakers "will be fighting over" the "relatively few" consumers who are willing to drive green vehicles. The study examined attitudes of U.S. consumers to hybrid electric, clean diesel, plug-in hybrid, and battery electric vehicles. Casting doubt on the hopes of many electric automakers -- including Santa Monica-based Coda Automotive and Irvine's Fisker Automotive, not to mention oft-hyped Tesla Motors, the electric car firm of Elon Musk--the study found that the initial cost of the vehicles are "too high", even with high fuel prices. J.D. powered 4000 consumers who indicated they will be in the market for a new vehicle within the next one to five years.

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