On a slow course

By Andrew M. Seder aseder@timesleader.comTimes Leader Staff Writer

As gas prices raced toward $4 a gallon this spring, local residents did not race to area automobile dealers in search of hybrid vehicles.

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While they’ve sold briskly in many markets across the country the past few months, sales are non-existent or very low at many local lots.

“I would be hard pressed to tell you the last one we sold,” said Blake Gagliardi, sales manager at Valley Chevrolet in Wilkes-Barre Township. “We just don’t sell them.”

When gas prices hovered at or above the $4 mark three years ago, sales of compact cars skyrocketed. Some thought the same would happen with hybrid sales during the recent flirtation with $4 but it never happened — at least here.

“In this market, hybrids aren’t as big a deal,” said Steve Ubaldini, the general manager at Wyoming Valley Motors in Larksville. He said the rough terrain, hilly landscape and lots of interstate driving are not the ideal situation for hybrids.

“They’re generally not a practical solution around here,” Ubaldini said. “Hybrids are good for city driving but on the highways they’re less efficient.”

Jeff Berger, whose family owns the Berger Family Dealership in Hazle Township, said his dealership sells very few and rarely stocks them because of poor sales.

He said the area loves SUVs and pickup trucks and the weather is not conducive to smaller vehicles. Even when his dealership stocked larger hybrid models like the Cadillac Escalade or the GMC Yukon, they “were very difficult to sell.”

Berger said customers “don’t even ask” about hybrid models at his dealership.

“It’s not taking off (here) like it is in other parts of the country,” Berger said.

One spokesman for a local dealer told a different story when it came to hybrid sales, but it also helps that some of the most popular hybrid models — including the Toyota Prius — are on his lots.

John Quinn, marketing director for Motor World, said sales have been strong locally.

“As quick as they’re building them, we’re selling them,” said Quinn. Motor World sells 14 different brands of vehicles, including Honda, which has the Civic hybrid, Toyota, which has the Camry and Prius, and Lexus, which has the CT 200h.

He said sales, which number more than 100 annually, are rising each year.

“Interest is growing locally,” he said. And gas prices aren’t the only reason. He said often when a new technology hits the market, people are apprehensive to spend more money on an unknown entity.

“People at first weren’t so sure how long a battery life would last,” Quinn said. But a few years into the hybrid revolution and with technology improving, people are buying into the hybrid movement.

True Electric Cars

The next step in that evolution, Gagliardi said, will hit the market in July.

The Chevy Volt, a vehicle Gagliardi called “a true hybrid,” arrives at Valley Chevrolet and other General Motors dealers in the region in about six to eight weeks. Unlike the hybrids on the market now, Gagliardi said the Volts are worth the extra money. Also unlike the hybrids on the market now, Gagliardi said there is a definite interest in the Volt locally.

“We have a lot of people coming in, asking questions. So far, the dealer has preordered three Volts.

“People are going to buy every one that we get,” he said matter-of-factly.

Ubaldini, at Wyoming Valley Motors, said that with most hybrids, “you probably never get your money back for what you spend.” The gas savings just aren’t significant enough to warrant the extra cost of the vehicle.

Gagliardi said unlike other hybrids, the Volts are true electric cars that can travel up to 40 miles on a single charge, no gas required. Even with a price tag of $40,000, he said they will sell with ease. The gas savings, unlike those realized with other “hybrids,” are tangible and real with the Volt, he said.

“Electric is definitely coming,” said Ubaldini. He said manufactures are telling dealers that by 2020, “a big percent of sales will be electric.” But for that to happen, Ubaldini said batteries need to be able to go 300 miles per charge “for people to really consider it.”

The Diesel Option

While hybrid sales are hot and cold, and electric car sales are a great unknown, sales of another type of engine are strong

Ubaldini said passenger vehicles with diesel engines are “red hot.” He said he is selling “as many as I can get. They don’t sit around.”

While hybrids have a reputation as being fuel efficient and environmentally friendly, he said it’s the new diesel vehicles that fit that bill.

“They’re much, much more fuel efficient than a hybrid,” he said, noting that Wyoming Valley Motors has sold more than 100 this year already.