Hybrids Everywhere
The biggest problem with the unpopularity of hybrid cars is the lack of education and knowledge that exists about them for the general public. We kid ourselves sometimes and say they’re popular, and yes, they are growing in popularity, but we’re not there yet. Part of the future of the hybrid car has to be the publicizing of it by the people who drive them as to their benefits, their usefulness, and their enjoyment factor as an automobile.
Most people who drive hybrids do so because they feel some sort of social responsibility. They are the people that say to themselves that they want to keep gas prices lower, they want to consume less non-renewable resources, they want to have a smaller environmental footprint, and they want to hand over a better world to the next generation. These are all noble motives, but maybe if those are our true goals, any one of them, then we need to take a better look at what else we can be doing other than simply just driving a hybrid.
We have to tell people about them. The fact of the matter is that in America today people are still woefully uneducated or deliberately ignorant regarding hybrid cars. Mention a hybrid to certain old people and they’ll just grunt and declare it hippy technology and be done with it. First it is important to educate ourselves about the history and technology of the hybrid car as best we can so we can sell it to other people. Yes, we’re selling it, even though we don’t have a car to sell, we have to sell them, and therein lay some hope for the world and the industry.
We can be telling people that it’s not just cars. Hybrid motorcycles, trucks, SUV’s and other things as well. Even the American military is exploring hybrid options for their vehicles, and if can be good enough for the military it can be good enough for anyone.
Eventually, we need to see hybrids on every street corner. The only way that is ever going to happen is if we tell people about them. Tell them what we like; even tell them what we don’t like. Only by presenting a complete picture of what the hybrid is will its publicity and presence spread, thus leading to a more hybrid friendly consuming public.
Not all people are driving hybrids out of environmental responsibility, for some it is about the economic impact the rising gas prices and the reduction of fossil fuels in our earth could someday have on America. This is a perfectly valid justification, and if that is your motive it is just as important to get the message out regarding that. It is the same state, where one person driving a hybrid for that motive won’t help, but 100,000 sure would. But those people who aren’t need to know why they should, and that’s up to those of us who do.
