As the marketplace adapts to alternative-fuel vehicles, service managers must adapt to a new breed of customers. In the same manner as dealerships selling mid-range and luxury vehicles meet the expectations of their customers by making nicer amenities “standard,” now they must also address the ever-increasing percentage of hybrid owners in the mix.
Hybrid sales are past their initial surge spawned by consumers labeled “early adaptors.” These are the gadget gurus who always want to be the first to own the next trendy item. According to industry experts, the second wave of owners, which included luxury brand owners, has also come and gone. Today’s consumer is most likely a person who is buying a hybrid for fuel-economy and environmental concerns and assumes that the initial “bugs” have been worked out.
Although hybrid sales have leveled off due to the slowing economy, they continue to represent between two to three percent of total sales in the United States. On its website, hybridcars.com reveals a recent forecast by J.D. Power and Associates which predicts the sales of hybrid and diesel-powered cars will more than triple by 2015: “The new study predicts that hybrids will account for seven percent of the car market in 2015—up from 2.2 percent in 2007— and diesel vehicles will carve out a 10-percent market share as compared to last year’s 3.2 percent.”
