Practice Management

Do you commute to work?  I have a carpet commute so transportation in that sense is not that concerning to me.  But, if you are trying to decide in the future what you might drive to work, you might wish to follow the public's lead on green.  According to The New York Times the public is rejecting the American automaker's sales job of the hybrid SUVs.

American automakers have bet the ranch that consumers will not give up their land yachts if the automakers could only juice them up to go a few more miles on a gallon of gas.  That is at least appearing to have been a serious mistake in that American automakers  have simply not invested seriously in building smaller vehicles that get higher gas mileage as people now wish to buy.

It is said that huge hybrids can get 20 miles to the gallon instead of the around 14 miles to the gallon that the non-hybrid versions get.  But, lets face it, that is not enough given the current gas prices commuters and others are facing.  My car gets about 21 miles to the gallon and that is not enough.

Maybe it has taken high energy prices for consumers to see that their tendency for living large in mini-mansions and road hogs, that do nothing but drain energy, might have been the wrong thing to do.  Now people are hurting, and selling us a few gallons more over 14 miles to the gallon is not going to do it.

For example, GM has sold about 1,100 of its Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon hybrids since their introduction in January. That pace is well behind its goal of 12,000 sales a year, and a fraction of the more than 100,000 hybrids sold so far in the United States this year.

Worse, the price for these hybrids is high - around $53,000, and about $4,000 more than the conventional Tahoe and Yukon.  Right.  I am in a money crunch because of high energy, and for the benefit of saving a few insignificant gallons you want to charge me many more times what I might save in gas.  Brilliant!  You wonder why American automakers are not doing so well.

On the other end, Toyota sold 64,000 Priuses through April, a 23% increase over 2007. It now ranks as the ninth-best-selling car in the United States.  And, while GM and Chrysler are converting their biggest vehicles into hybrids, other automakers are going in the other direction.  Honda, for example, recently said it would build a hybrid version of its Fit subcompact.

We all need to do better.  This includes the vehicles we drive and the mileage we obtain.  But, it also includes the mileage we do not drive.  Looking a high mileage cars, including hybrids, is a good thing.  There is no reason why a Third Waver should not do it.  But, if you move home or closer to home, you will consume substantially less energy.