A Study on Hybrid Cars: Environmental Effects and Consumer Habits

........................................................................................................................................................ 5 Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 2. Literature Review ................................................................................................................ 12 2.1 Environmental Effects ....................................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Emissions ........................................................................................................................................... 14 2.3 Production of Cars ............................................................................................................................. 16 2.3.1 Production Emissions ................................................................................................................. 16 2.3.2 Production Energy Consumption ............................................................................................... 20 2.3.3 Raw Materials and Recycling .............................................................................................. 23 2.4 Consumer Behavior and Marketing Strategy .................................................................................... 24 2.5 Widespread change to hybrid/electric instead of gasoline/diesel ................................................... 34 2.6 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 34 Chapter 3. Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 36 3.1 Quantitative Data Analysis ................................................................................................................ 36 3.1.1 Energy Consumption Calculations ...................................................................................... 36 3.1.2 Breakeven Calculations ....................................................................................................... 37 3.2 Consumer Attitudes and Selling ........................................................................................................ 38 3.2.1 Interview with a Car Salesperson ............................................................................................... 39 3.3 Focus Groups ..................................................................................................................................... 40 3.3.1 People who bought a hybrid in the past year. ........................................................................... 41 3.3.2 People who bought a new car (non‐hybrid) in the past year. ................................................... 41 Chapter 4. Findings ............................................................................................................................... 43 4.1 Emissions and Efficiency ................................................................................................................... 43 4.1.1 Energy Consumption for Manufacturing Vehicles ..................................................................... 43 4.1.2 CO2 Emissions Resulting Manufacturing Vehicles ...................................................................... 44 4.4.3 Break Even Points....................................................................................................................... 45 4.2 Public’s View on Purchasing Vehicles ................................................................................................... 48 4.3 Sales Approach: ................................................................................................................................. 52 4.4 Incentives .......................................................................................................................................... 53