The Best 2009 Hybrid Cars

Those who have been following the development of hybrid cars shall be looking forward to the year 2009 to see what new trends and developments will be revealed in that year. There is no doubt that some of the largest stories will hinge around the release of Prius, a 3^rd generation car. The coming back of the Honda Insight will be yet another anticipated and hot story. Both of them are reasonably priced and high volume alternatives for conventional car purchasers. The year 2009 will also witness BMW and Mercedes introducing hybrid cars for the first time. Though Saturn, Ford, Chevrolet and Honda have already come out with their versions of hybrid cars, one will be able to see improved vehicles from them.

Apart from this one will also witness all electric cars, albeit as niche offerings, being introduced in late 2009 along with innovative plug-in hybrids. Irrespective of the tough economic scenario along with recession in the US auto market, the requirement for hybrids still leads the general market. It is expected that the dent imposed by the recession shall not pose any problems to the hybrid car market and it will keep on increasing at a healthy pace. In 2008, hybrid cars had outsold other new cars by nearly 2.5% and this is expected to increase to 3% in the year 2009. This translates to the staggering figure of nearly 500,000 fresh hybrids rolling out on US road in the year 2009.

The 3^rd generation version of Toyota Prius will account for 50% sales of all hybrids combined, but it will feel some impact in its sales from another big seller, the 2010 Honda Insight that is targeting sales of about 100,000 units in the year 2009. There are about 15 other models of hybrids that will grow to 20 in the fiscal 2009 and they shall constitute for the remaining sales. This will include the 1^st hybrid sedan from Ford, Mercedes’s first hybrid, a 2-mode total hybrid version offering of the Saturn Vue mini SUV along with Lexus’s exclusive hybrid-only version. While these projections are tentative, they do not take into account expanded and new hybrid incentives that are likely to come out during the administration of Obama.

If larger tax breaks are introduced for the car industry, they will result in growth of hybrids along with other plug-in type vehicles. Keeping all these factors in account, one can safely state that there will be a major boom in the introduction and sales of hybrids and cars that run solely on electricity, permitting a gas-free driving environment. These cars will dominate the sales of vehicles, which is amazing when one considers the fact that the initial 2 hybrids, the Prius and the Insight, were introduced in the US market as early as the late 1999 and the early 2000s. The Detroit car show 2009 will witness the unveiling of the new Toyota Prius and this 3^rd generation model will be more powerful and bigger than its predecessors.