Electric Cars, Hybrids and Generation Y

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A very recent study revealed that younger folks (Ages 19 to 31) would rather have some  above any other type.  And in fact, they’re willing to pay for it.

Of this group surveyed, almost 60% said that they would rather have an electrified vehicle of some type over every other type.  About 57% said that a hybrid would be their vehicle type of choice.  The remaining few responded that they would rather have an electric-only vehicle.  The survey included young folks from the United States, West Europe and China.

This is important because these are the folks that will be buying vehicles in strong numbers over the next 10 years.  In fact this demographic (sometimes referred to as Generation Y) will buy about 40% of all vehicles over the next 10 years.

The primary reason for this age group’s choice is fuel efficiency.  Almost 90% of responders said that they did consider fuel mileage as at least a consideration when they shop for a vehicle.  This (according to the study) was particularly important when fuel prices rose above $2.75 per gallon.  In fact, about half of Gen Y’s mentioned that they would be willing to fork over $300 for every Mile Per Gallon of improvement they could squeeze from a hybrid vehicle.

In the minds of Generation Y folks, they believe that the current hybrid technolgy has reached a point to be reliable.  But as far as all-electric vehicles, responders weren’t exactly sure about the all-electric vehicles.  Whether it was the reliability or just the perceived inconvenience of plugging in the all electrics wasn’t clear.

One thing is clear, newer, fuel-saving technology should be considered as very, very important to automobile manufacturers over the next few years.  It will pay for them to get in the minds of this Gen Y group.