By MATHEW DEARNALEY
Sales of cars with both petrol and electric motors are picking up slowly in New Zealand amid soaring fuel prices which are knocking the American market for four-wheel-drive gas guzzlers.
Toyota says it has sold about 70 of its hybrid Prius model here since October.
The 1.5-litre car -which sells in New Zealand for $43,500 - has become a "green" appendage to Hollywood stars because of the fuel economy and low pollution from an electric motor which is recharged whenever the vehicle decelerates.
Honda has also recently launched a hybrid petrol-electric 1.3-litre Civic here. It sold more than 20,000 of the car in the United States last year.
So far it has sold only about 20 in New Zealand despite a relatively modest price of $33,000.
Local marketing manager Graeme Meyer acknowledges that sales have been modest since the car, which offers fuel savings of 14 per cent to 30 per cent on conventional Civics, became available in March.
But he is counting on high petrol prices, which have jumped 15 per cent since December to a nominal all-time high of almost $1.30c a litre for 96 at some pumps, to stir interest.
"New Zealanders will only start to care about the environmental impact and fuel economy of the cars they drive when the cost of motoring increases," he said.
Honda says a hybrid Civic emits almost 100 times less soot than the average 12-year-old New Zealand car.
The introduction of hybrids follows several years in which sales of petrol- and diesel-guzzling sports utility vehicles have swollen to almost 20 per cent of annual first-time vehicle registrations.
They made up 42,814, or 18.4 per cent, of the 232,714 registered in New Zealand for the first time last year.
This was a jump from 33,133 registrations in 2002, according to the Land Transport Safety Authority, which does not expect fuel price hikes to have much short-term impact on sports utility sales.
But US sales of full-size sports utilities tumbled last month, although some of the smaller models continued to boom. Ford, for example, disclosed a 6 per cent slump in April sales of its sports utilities.
Although Toyota and Honda are foundation members of the Sustainable Business Network's new GreenFleet fuel efficiency scheme, not everyone is convinced they will do much for the environment.
Clive Matthew-Wilson, publisher of the Dog and Lemon Guide for car buyers, says the only way to solve congestion and pollution problems is to get more vehicles off the road.
Hybrid vehicle sales shift gear
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