Fuel efficiency has increasingly become an important factor over the past few years when it comes to buying a new car. But it isn’t the only factor that matters as evidenced by a 7.5% decline in hybrid car sales in 2009 compared to 2008 when summer gas prices soared to $4/gallon. According to a new report by Accenture, American consumers are demanding more from their green cars than just good gas mileage; they want their green cars to wow them with electronics while delivering a superior driving experience.

Are you listening Detroit?

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Remember when Kia first hit the market and other car manufacturers were laughing at them? Well, they haven’t been laughing in quite some time as Kia continues to put out attractive looking vehicles for far less money than anyone else. They have now unleashed their latest entry into the hybrid market at the new [...]br /Posted in: a href=”http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/technology/transportation/hybrid-cars/” title=”View all posts in Hybrid Cars” rel=”category tag”Hybrid Cars/a, a href=”http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/technology/industry-news/” title=”View all posts in Industry” rel=”category tag”Industry/a, a href=”http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/technology/transportation/” title=”View all posts in Transportation” rel=”category tag”Transportation/a
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Toyota has been playing a three-pronged strategy to get the ball rolling again after such a dismal few months by simultaneously launching a major mea culpa with the politicians and public, providing huge incentives for potential customers, and accelerating the announcement of new products to fuel excitement.

After seeing some congressional testimony and watching Toyota execs respond to issues over the last few months, I can’t say that Toyota is doing a very good job with the groveling. But, given that you can find some of the best deals ever for getting yourself in a Prius right now (how does $249 per month for a 3 year lease sound?) and reportedly more and deeper deals on the way, it seems the huge incentives strategy is in full effect.

And in terms of new product announcements, Toyota has been dropping a slew of them which clearly lay out Toyota’s accelerating pace of hybrid deployment including a Hybrid RAV4, a sports coupe to compete with the Honda CR-Z, a larger Prius-based car, and the Lexus CT 200h compact hybrid hatchback. Also rumored is a rear wheel drive Lexus-based hybrid sports car.

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