You get a hybrid! You get a hybrid! Everybody gets a hybrid!
July 3rd, 2007 by Eric
I’m a Prius owner and a proud one at that. With the amount of driving that my wife does on a daily basis (40 miles each way to work) we’ve figured out that we have saved over $3,000 in the two years that we’ve owned the little gas sipper. That, of course was not the sole purpose for buying the car; we’ve also kept over seven tons of carbon out the air compared to the gas-gormandizing truck we traded in for it.
We were a bit ahead of the masses, but according to Toyota’s May 2007 hybrid sales, the rest of the country seems to be following suit in droves.
Hybrid sales totaled 119,154 units, an increase of 75 percent over the same period last year. In May, Toyota Motor Services posted sales of 36,101 hybrid vehicles, up 102 percent over last May. Toyota Division posted sales of 34,174 hybrids, up 121 percent over the same period last year.
So that’s good news for those who want our planet to be somewhat livable, who don’t want to fund global terrorism, or who don’t own their own money-printing machine in order to pay for gas. Here’s the good news for those who work in America, or at least those who want to buy an American-made vehicle; GM will introduce four new hybrid models this year.
A company spokesman said the four new hybrids, all previously announced, are the two-mode gas-electric systems in the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon large sport utility vehicles, and hybrid systems for the Saturn Aura and new Chevrolet Malibu sedans.
These aren’t going to compete with the Prius or Honda Civic hybrid in gas mileage, but it’s nice to see that GM is taking a step toward the 21st century.
They have also announced that they are speeding the production of the Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid that can travel up to 40 miles before burning a single molecule of gas. Hopefully this will help save American jobs and the planet, though not necessarily in that order.
Picture snapped by this eco-driver
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