Radio Workshop

Will Gotham City Go Hybrid? (Transcript)

by Dianne Finch

Script (150 seconds)

NARR: Approximately 150,000 hybrid vehicles are now cruising

American highways, but go largely unnoticed by most drivers, unaware of what they are observing. The Toyota Prius, so far selling better than

Honda's smaller hybrid, the Insight, looks like any nondescript, no

frills 4-door sedan, and is priced similarly to the comparable

Nissan Sentra, about $20,000.

Victor Hodges sells the Toyota Prius in Manhattan.

VICTOR:

It is a novelty car the educated consumer are the only ones

interested in the car - the ones that read, that know more about hte car than the average consumer, those are the only ones that come in.

NARR: Hybrids use an electric battery in conjunction with a

gasoline-powered combustion engine. They can achieve up to 60 miles

per gallon - while emissions can be reduced by 50

percent or higher.

NARR: Ken Kurani, researches clean vehicle technologies and

consumer behavior at the Univ ersity of California at Davis. Kurani says the

President Bush's policies toward hybrids and SUVs could be structured to promote these low emissions vehicles now.

KURANI: There are certainly reforms in federal tax policy he could

have undertaken, right now the buyer of a fuel efficient Prius or

Insight or other hybrids that will come out is eligible for a

couple thousand dollars in federal tax incentives when they

purchase the vehicle, however there are elements of our tax code

that allow buyers of our largest SUVs to take tens of thousands of

dollars in federal tax credits - and certainly many regard that as

a strange signal to be sending.

NARR: President Bush has proposed an increase in the SUV incentive

for small businesses from 25,000 to 75,000, while the hybrid

deduction that Kurani referred to will decrease annually, from

2,000 this year to 500 by 2006.

NARR: All major carmakers announced hybrid models in 2004 product

lines - including hybrid SUVs and minivans. Ford held focus groups

with their customers - and said that even SUV owners are interested

when they hear about product plans for a hybrid version of the

Escape SUV, which will hit showrooms at the end of this year.

Kurani: We will start to see hybrid technology in a much wider variety of

vehcles, and I think that in itself, giving consumers different images

of what a hybrid can be is going to make a big difference.

NARR: And that big difference could translate into cleaner air long before we see the benefits of a federal investment in fuel cells.

This is Dianne Finch, Columbia Radio News.