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Capital Times Article 2 |
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First Hybrid Fest To Be Held Here
July 22 Event
Coincides With Dane County Fair
The Capital Times : FRONT PAGE : A1
Friday, April 14,
2006
By Jeff Richgels
The Capital Times
There probably isn't a more appropriate venue than
Madison for an event celebrating hybrid vehicles.
Madison, which reportedly has the highest per capita
ownership of hybrid vehicles in the country, will be the
site of "Hybridfest 2006" on July 22 at the Alliant Energy
Center in conjunction with the Dane County Fair. Go to
www.hybridfest.com for details.
The event is so grassroots you can almost smell the fresh
clippings: The five organizers are volunteers with no ties
to the industry.
"That's the neat thing," said Bill Robbins, one of the
organizers. "All we really are is five hybrid enthusiasts
locally who have found each other and said let's create this
event."
The other organizers are Eric Powers, who created the
Madison Hybrid Group; Richard Steeves; Linda Weidemann; and
Bradlee Fons, who runs the Milwaukee Hybrid Group.
The non-profit event is the first such event the
organizers know of, Robbins said.
"There have been smaller meetings but nothing on the
scale of Hybridfest," said Robbins. "You would think it
would be in San Francisco before it would be in Madison. The
answer is it just takes a group of committed enthusiasts or
fanatics to make it happen and this is where we happen to
be."
Powers came up with the idea for the event, and the other
organizers quickly agreed it was worth doing, Robbins said.
"What we want to do is have a single event where every
possible hybrid car is found and where regular people who
don't have hybrids can stop by and see what these things
look like and talk to hybrid owners," Robbins said.
Local auto dealers -- the sponsors include Zimbrick
Honda, Smart Toyota Gordie Boucher Lincoln Mercury and Lexus
of Madison -- will be on hand offering test drives, Robbins
added, "but the neat difference is we'll have regular owners
who can tell you what it's really like to have a hybrid."
The event will be funded by the sponsors and the $25
registration fee by the participating hybrid enthusiasts,
but admission is free for the public.
The Dane County Fair is very supportive of the event,
Robbins said.
"They are going to allow a hybrid in the midway with
signage referring to Hybridfest," he said. "We hope to draw
a lot more people by being co-located with the fair."
One interesting vehicle scheduled to appear at Hybridfest
is a General Motors EV-1. GM eventually crushed those
ill-fated electric vehicles but the automaker allowed
UW-Madison to keep one it had on the condition it removed
the "innards," which UW replaced to keep it a working
electric vehicle, Robbins said.
Another expected big draw scheduled to appear is a
"plug-in Prius" -- a Toyota Prius hybrid with additional
batteries added in the back storage area that give it about
40 miles of purely electric travel before recharging is
needed, Robbins said.
"That's the real future I'm excited about," he said.
"It's the equivalent of $1.10-per-gallon gas when you plug
into the electric grid."
John Dolan, a salesman at Smart Motors known as "Mr.
Hybrid," said that while Toyota officially doesn't approve
of the plug-in Prius -- the alterations void the warranty --
it is working on a next generation power train that will
provide much longer electrical operations.
Another big draw -- perhaps the top draw for the average
consumer -- scheduled to appear is the hybrid Toyota Camry,
which is scheduled to debut next month.
Dolan said Smart Motors, the region's top hybrid dealer,
should have its first hybrid Camrys by Memorial Day. He
expects big sales for the vehicle since it's the first
hybrid mid-size sedan, noting that the dealership already
has 20 to 25 orders without a big ad campaign.
"I'm totally convinced that once people actually see this
car it's going to really take off," he said, noting that it
will debut as gas prices are expected to be peaking with the
start of the summer driving season, "and every time we've
had a spike in fuel prices, Prius sales have gone through
the roof."
The hybrid Camry will provide six-cylinder power with
four-cylinder gas mileage of about 43 miles per gallon in
the city, 37 on the highway, Dolan said.
The hybrid Camrys, which have more standard features than
the base regular Camrys, will start around $25,000, which is
$2,000 to $2,500 more than a similarly equipped regular
Camry, Dolan said. That compares to the typical $3,500 to
$4,000 hybrid premium.
Soaring gas prices since last year's hurricanes already
have given a big boost to hybrid sales, Dolan said.
There were about 20,000 hybrid sales in 2002, 47,000 in
2003, 88,000 in 2004 and more than 200,000 last year. The
2005 sales included 107,897 Prius sales.
Smart Motor's sales of all vehicles are up 18 percent
this year, with March being the dealership's best month ever
as Toyota is poised to surpass GM as the world's largest
automaker.
Dolan said Smart Motors still has a wait of four to six
months from order to delivery for a Prius, although he added
that sales could slow due to tax issues.
The very complex law governing tax credits for hybrid
vehicles provides for different credits for different
vehicles tied to their performance, with the credits phasing
out over 15 months after an automaker sells 60,000 hybrids.
"That was done to protect U.S. carmakers who are either
in the infancy of hybrid development or not making hybrids
at all yet," he said.
Toyota, which will produce 100,000 hybrids for the U.S.
this year, expects to hit the 60,000 mark by late June or
early July. The full tax credit -- $3,150 for the Prius and
$1,300 for the Camry -- will remain for the following
quarter after 60,000 are sold, then phase out over the
ensuing four quarters, Dolan said.
"So someone ordering a Prius now may not get the full
credit" since it is based on the date it is delivered, not
ordered, he said, whereas someone ordering a Camry may get
it in time to get the full credit since the wait time at
this point is expected to be shorter.
Toyota plans to offer hybrid models of all of its
vehicles by 2012, which should only help the automaker
extend its dominance, especially if gas prices keep rising,
Dolan said.
"Every time you see a spike in gas prices (hybrids) make
more sense," Dolan said.
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