Enviro-friendly cars: consumers want them, manufacturers lag
By: Drivers.com staff
Date: 2001-04-02
A survey of about 2,000 Canadians showed that 38% would be willing to pay more for environmentally friendly cars. Of the 38%, almost half would pay up to $500 more and most of those said they would be willing to pay up to $2,000 more. However, only 225 units of the Toyota Prius hybrid gasoline-electric cars were sold last year in Canada and only 155 of the Honda Insight , its competitor. "When you introduce a new technology-whether it's airbags or anti-lock brakes-you always start with a certain level of slow pace of introduction and then you go through some sort of adoption curve," said Charlie Reid, co author of the study. Both Ford and General Motors have pledged to introduce SUVs with gas-electric hybrid engines by 2004.
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