Hard lesson for hybrids

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published June 6, 2007

To sell a hybrid car, automakers can't set the price so high that it outweighs the fuel savings in the minds of consumers. That's why the hybrid Accord will soon be extinct.

Honda announced Monday that its $31, 685-base-price 2007 hybrid Accord, which gets 31 miles per gallon compared to the traditional model's 28 mpg, will be its last. In this era of global warming and soaring gas prices, hybrids are marketable to people who want to help save the planet and a few dollars at the pump. But even the greenest drivers are not going to pay thousands more to travel a stone's throw farther per gallon.

This is an unusual setback for Honda, whose strategy of giving drivers more power but less pollution flopped. But it shouldn't be a letdown for hybrids, which have seen a recent increase in sales and can be part of the solution to reducing emissions.

Toyota's Prius, which gets more than 50 miles per gallon, has been a striking success, and automakers should continue to look for ways to build more fuel-efficient cars and trucks. But Honda learned the hard way that drivers won't buy hybrids if they can't get enough fuel savings to justify the price of the car.

[Last modified June 6, 2007, 00:45:20]