Just a year or two ago, consumers were paying premiums of thousands of dollars and ignoring desired options to simply purchase a hybrid car. Today, manufacturers of fuel-efficient hybrid cars are giving big incentives [1], including low-interest financing options and price discounts, to sell the hybrids. Coupled with federal tax incentives [2], if you've been interested in better insulating yourself from fluctuating gas prices by buying a hybrid, the time might be right.
To illustrate, after six years of tremendous sales growth for the Toyota Prius, sales of that hybrid actually dropped by about 1,000 cars to 106,971 (280,000 worldwide).
Consumers should be aware that tax credits could be affected by changing EPA mileage ratings.
"The Environmental Protection Agency's mileage ratings for all cars have been recalculated to reflect a variety of driving conditions. Ratings on many vehicles are set to fall by about 10 to 25 percent, while those for hybrid-electric vehicles will drop the most, by about 30 percent."
Whether these kinds of incentives will continue will most certainly depend on inherently undependable gas prices.