China moves ahead in EVs, while hybrid sales stall: "The New York Times ran a feature story today on China's plans to take a leading position in electric and hybrid vehicles. Reporter Keith Bradsher writes:
China wants to raise its annual production capacity to 500,000 hybrid or all-electric cars and buses by the end of 2011, from 2,100 last year, government officials and Chinese auto executives said. By comparison, CSM Worldwide, a consulting firm that does forecasts for automakers, predicts that Japan and South Korea together will be producing 1.1 million hybrid or all-electric light vehicles by then and North America will be making 267,000.
Meanwhile, hybrid vehicles are sitting unsold on U.S. dealer lots. Last summer, with gasoline at $4 a gallon, the average new Toyota Prius moved off the lot within 36 hours of arrival. Now, with the gas price down by half, the average Prius sits for 76 days. In most parts of the country, the average price of a used Prius has dropped about 24% in 7 months.
We can't blame that situation entirely on gas prices. Sales of all new vehicles plummeted about 30% after the credit crisis and stock market crash."
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