The inhabitants of Silicon Valley, the heartland of the so-called “creative class”, have opted for the Prius as their collective car of choice. This past June more of Toyota’s hybrids were sold in the high-tech metro area than any other vehicle, far surpassing the national standards. The Creative Class Group reports:
“Are we ahead of the curve, or what?” asked Rod Diridon, executive director of the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University, and a Prius owner.
The Prius’ newfound status reflects the continued greening of Silicon Valley. Diridon listed sustained higher gas prices, the availability of carpool-lane stickers for solo Prius drivers – no more are being issued – and the intelligence of local residents as factors in the Prius’ popularity.”
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People say people buy Prius because of its looks. “It’s the one hybrid that doesn’t look like a non-hybrid.” Actually many people buy Prius in spite of its looks. They buy it to get off oil, aka national security.
July 25th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Actually they DO buy it because of its looks, which make a statement. cf NY Times (requires Select membership): http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F30711F93E5A0C778CDDAE0894DF404482
As for “getting off oil,” fuel mileage is one thing but carbon loading is another. Many Euro small cars are as good as the Prius in overall carbon emissions, though their tailpipe “criteria emissions” (CO, HC, NOx) are not quite as good.
BMW is already trumpeting that this fall’s (Euro-only) Mini Diesel with engine-cutoff equals the Prius on overall CO2 emissions.
There are many ways to skin a cat; it’s going to be a fascinating 20 years in auto tech!
July 26th, 2007 at 5:08 am
Until West Coasties can boast public transportation systems equal to or better than those of many midwest and east coast cities, they can stop patting themselves on the back.
Millions of us get to work via public transport. For those of us foolish enough to own a car for occasional weekend getaways, we select our car models based on insurance rates and least-likely-to-be-stolen ratings.
Are we ahead of the curve or what?
July 26th, 2007 at 8:45 am