EV/Hybrid Car Owners Rethinking Their Loyalty To Saving The Environment -- May 19, 2015

Regular readers are aware of this story; it's been reported elsewhere. It is interesting that the New York Times has picked up the story that Americans are losing their "love affair" with coal-burning cars:

Affordable gasoline is making hybrid car owners rethink their loyalty.

With bargain gasoline prices putting more money in the pockets of Americans, owners of hybrids and electric vehicles are defecting to sport utility vehicles and other conventional models powered only by gasoline, according to Edmunds.com, an auto research firm.

There are limits, it appears, to how far consumers will go to own a car that became a rolling statement of environmental concern. In 2012, with gas prices soaring, an owner could expect a hybrid to pay back its higher upfront costs in as little as five years. Now, that oft-calculated payback period can extend to 10 years or more.

“We’d all like to save the environment, but maybe not when it costs hundreds of dollars per year,” said Jessica Caldwell, director of industry analysis for Edmunds.com.

Erik Tufteland of Las Vegas traded his trusty 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid for a 2014 Subaru Forester. He wanted an all-wheel-drive vehicle that could better handle ski and snowboard trips. Mr. Tufteland was also growing anxious over the possibility of one day needing to replace the Honda’s expensive hybrid battery.

Well, that was fast. The coal-burning car reached its apogee in 2014 in America.

More from the linked article:

In all, 55 percent of hybrid and electric vehicle owners are defecting to a gasoline-only model at trade-in time — the lowest level of hybrid loyalty since Edmunds.com began tracking such transactions in 2011. More than one in five are switching to a conventional sport utility vehicle, nearly double the rate of three years ago.

That one-and-done syndrome coincides with tumbling sales of electric and hybrid vehicles. Through April, sales of electrified models slid to 2.7 percent of the market, down from 3.4 percent over the same period last year, Edmunds.com said. At the same time, sport utility vehicles grabbed 34.4 percent of sales, up from 31.6 percent.

There is little mystery behind the shift in sentiment. To the delight of every fast-pumping American, a gallon of regular gasoline has fallen to $2.66 on average, from nearly $4 in 2012, according to the Oil Price Information Service. The federal Energy Department figures that the average household will save $750 on fuel bills this year. Those flush households can afford to expand their car-shopping horizons, with less anxiety over a model’s thirst for fuel.

If one does the math (which I've done many, many times on the blog) one knows that it is simply not the cost of gasoline driving drivers away from coal-burning cars.

12,000 miles = 1,000 miles / month = 1,000 / 30 mpg = 30 gallons per month. At $2.66 / gallon = $80 / month; at $4.00 / gallon = $120 / month. Forty dollars ($40) / month savings -- that's two dinners at McDonald's for a four-person family. Two dinners at McDonalds each month or one moderately-priced sushi dinner with drinks for a couple in NYC.

It's much more than the savings in gasoline that is driving folks back to SUVs and pick up trucks.

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Hypocrites Of The Nth Degree

First, the news story. USA Today is reporting:

SEATTLE — A huge offshore drilling rig docked in its temporary home here Thursday after a contested, 12-hour journey from Port Angeles, WA.

The 400-foot long Polar Pioneer began moving out of Port Angeles at about 1:40 a.m. PT and arrived in Elliott Bay at about 1:50 p.m. Pulled by tugs, it docked at Terminal 5 around 5 p.m. PT.

More than a dozen protesters in kayaks [made from petroleum products] paddled into Elliott Bay to meet the rig, holding a large sign that said "sHellNo.org Arctic Drilling = Climate Chaos." A dozen people on shore also joined the protest, holding signs that read "W. Seattle Says sHello No! Arctic Drilling" and "Chief Seattle Is Watching."

The Polar Pioneer is one of two drill rigs that Netherlands-based Royal Dutch Shell petroleum plans to use as it moves ahead with plans to use leased space at the Port of Seattle to load drilling rigs and other vessels with supplies and personnel. It is preparing to explore for oil this summer in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast. 

Now the fun. One can only assume those with kayaks are not the "norm" but rather the elitists. I could be wrong.

But I'm not wrong about this: the kayakers drove to the port in their SUVs fueled by crude oil; they were wearing clothes that required fossil fuel energy. But most interesting: the kayaks were made from petroleum products.

It was caught on Facebook.  These folks aren't trying to protect the environment. They are anti-industrialists. At best. Most likely, Luddites.