Smart Car Technology

Hybrid automobile sales shot up in 2008, unlike their traditional gasoline-engine counterparts. As of March 2008, 38,214 hybrid units were sold in the United States. That’s a 10 percent improve from the prior year, and – that figure doesn’t include the quantity of 1 main U.S. automaker’s hybrids due to the fact the manufacturer doesn’t separate these models from the rest of its sales statistics.

These hybrid sales are bright spots for the automotive marketplace, which has seen an overall drop in sales by twelve percent in 2008. It’s no wonder – the average price of one barrel of crude oil shot up from .87 in 1998 to more than .00 in 2008. Several Americans merely don’t have the cash to invest on that new vehicle or, when they do, they’re making much more fuel-effective selections. Consumers are smart. They know what they want in their automobiles.

Availability of a lot of of these hybrid models is not quite up to demand, nevertheless. Recent shortages in batteries – both nickel metal hydride (NiMH) and lithium-ion – in newer hybrid models, have caused problems. A major U.S. automaker didn’t launch 1 of its new hybrid models on schedule due to the fact of the shortage, and specific manufacturers are simply running out of completed hybrids altogether.