Portrait of A Hybrid Driver

If you were at school Arts lesson and your teacher asked to portrait a typical hybrid driver. What would he look like? A hippie-gig who hardly ever walks so that he wouldn’t squash a couple of ants? Or someone stunningly beautiful, who is always in the flashlights of cameras? (This gaudy blur could be anyone from Salma Hayek to Clint Eastwood. You could never draw well). Or maybe it’s a trendy teenager who likes to invest his dad’s money into new gadgets?

Ok, enough of Arts. Some people can’t even tell yet what electric and hybrid cars are. But meticulous scientists have already calculated everything. So, tell me what your car is and I will tell you who you are. When the first hybrid vehicles came to the mass market in late 1999, they looked radically different from conventional gas-powered ones. That’s when you would expect, let’s say, extravagant people to drive them. Among the earliest adopts of hybrid technology were celebrities of different kind, primarily motivated by ecological reasons. Or lack of publicity. Whatever. They still do own their electric and hybrid cars, but the focus of market research is on common people.

So, here is a fact. Hybrid buyer is wrinklier than the average car buyer. The gasoline vehicle purchaser is about 40 years old. In the hybrid section the age will be 50. Who would have thought! But if we dig deeper, it makes sense. Today there are hybrid versions of many of the most popular makes and models, including coupe, sedan, SUV and pickup body style. They are all available at different prices, all a bit more expensive than their non-hybrid equivalents. That’s when we turn to another criterion – level of income. According to J.D. Power report in 2004 hybrid owner incomes were as high as $100,000. Compare this to $ 85,000 per annum for gasoline car drivers. Still not bad, but that’s where a couple of thousand dollars make difference. In a 2007 survey of Toyota Prius drivers by Topline Strategy Group, 71 percent of respondents earned more than $100,000 per year. So looks like things haven’t changed dramatically.

The next fact is a pure flattery for each and every hybrid owner. According to Walter McManus, of the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute, hybrid car drivers are more educated. “Hybrid car drivers have a level of education higher than any group of car drivers that I’ve ever seen,” that’s what he said. Oh, how sweet of him! It’s just nice to think that as a hybrid SUV driver you are automatically labelled more intelligent. At the same time there are more pessimistic tendencies among the hybrid-equipped intellectuals. They are more worried about the growth of fuel prices. Well, their behaviour is very logical then. Hybrid vehicle is one of the surest ways to save petrol and to save on petrol.

A portrait of a hybrid driver could be very feminine. Even in 2002 they showed a very high interest in eco-friendly cars. But the lack of information on the topic deterred the purchase. There is an old myth that electric and hybrid cars are small and underpowered. That was one of the factors that put the male population off hybrids. Who wants to drive a girly car! This question is not of major importance any more. Any male who claims to understand something in automotive technology world, knows that these days electric and hybrid cars are a lot faster than bicycles.

We can mention environmental concern factor, but in that case there will be no British flag on the background of this portrait. The research shows, British driver would consider buying a hybrid if “he was sure running costs would be lower” or “if petrol became too expensive”. Very honest. I just wonder, what they would say if the survey wasn’t anonymous.

So what do we have here? 50-year olds, rich, very well-educated… Apparently these factors correlate and prove this statistics to be right. But does it mean, that if you are in your twenties you would mind having a hybrid? Not at all! Statistics speaks for hybrid-owners, but keeps quiet about hybrid-dreamers. So it must be just a matter of time that data will change. Buying hybrids, older generation pave the way for youngsters, as prices become more affordable. Who knows what the next hybrid portrait will look like.