by Shauna Theel, via Media Matters
The Prius is now the world’s third best-selling car line, but before it became a clear success story, it was the target of attacks from conservative media similar to those now being leveled against electric vehicles.
In 2000, the year the Prius was released in the U.S., Diane Katz and Henry Payne wrote at the Wall Street Journal that hybrid cars are not “what the public wants.” The next year, the Cato Institute’s Patrick Michaels declared the Prius would “never” deliver a profit for Toyota and hyped how “demand has been weak” for hybrids. That these conservative pundits have clearly been proven wrong with time is a lesson for today’s pundits who suggest that current electric car sales mean that electric cars will never be successful. As Bloomberg reporter Jamie Butters noted in a video report, “a lot of people will criticize the sales of the Chevy Volt by GM or the Nissan Leaf, but when you really look back they’re selling at significantly higher opening volumes than the Prius when it came out 15 years ago.”
Even after Prius sales had significantly ramped up, conservative media were still downplaying the market for hybrids in the U.S. In 2004, a Fox News guest declared that “Americans don’t want hybrids”:
JOHN GIBSON: What about hybrids? Is it true that Americans desperately want hybrids and get better gas mileage and be kinder to the environment, or is that sort of environmentalist propaganda?
DAVID NAUGHTON, NEWSWEEK: Americans don’t want hybrids. That’s not true at all. Americans are buying a few hybrids, but Hummer outsells the Toyota Prius by two to one. And even Toyota sells as many Camrys in a couple of months as they will an entire year of Prius.
It gets a ton of attention. It’s a technological marvel, but as long as gas is $1.50 a gallon in this country, people don’t want green cars. They want big cars; they want SUV’s. [Fox News, The Big Story with John Gibson, 1/6/04, via Nexis]
That same year, The Weekly Standard‘s Henry Payne called tax incentives for hybrid vehicles a “sweet bonus for upscale customers like Arianna Huffington and Cameron Diaz.” The criticism is strikingly similar to the conservative narrative that electric car subsidies only benefit the rich, when in fact tax incentives help make electric vehicles available to the middle class, just as they did with the Prius.
In 2005, the Wall Street Journal‘s Holman Jenkins dedicated two columns to spewing contrarian nonsense claiming if more people switched to Priuses, it wouldn’t reduce oil consumption. And in 2007 Rush Limbaugh absurdly declared that driving a Prius causes “more environmental damage than if you had a Hummer.” Electric cars have recently endured similar attacks from conservative media outlets who deny the fact that they have substantially lower carbon dioxide emissions and feign concern about how the batteries will be recycled.
Fox News was running with similar attacks in 2006: suggesting that the Prius would not sell, criticizing incentives for hybrid cars, and sowing unwarranted doubt about the environmental benefits of hybrids.
Many of the recent attacks on electric cars are coming from the same people who criticized the Prius.
But the Prius survived all the scorn, and became an undeniable success story. In 15 years — particularly if a serious climate change policy is implemented — will we be saying the same thing about the electric car?
Shauna Theel is a researcher with Media Matters for America. Jill Fitzsimmons contributed to this post. This piece was originally published at Media Matters and was reprinted with permission.
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A very good article – those conservative talking points are such good servants for the oil industry. Great point that plug-ins are selling at a much better rate than Hybrids did initially.
One significant difference between the plug-ins today and Hybrids from 15 years ago – Hybrids didn’t have battery prices dropping significantly (nor capacity dramatically increasing – NiMH batts used by Hybrids were pretty mature by that point) – whereas the battery technology using in today’s plug-ins is completely different, price per kWh has dropped 30% over the last 3 years while capacity has increased – this is expected to continue throughout this decade.
By the end of the decade, carbon price or no, battery prices will have declined so much (and gasoline will be more expensive of course) that plug-ins will be a no brainer purchase for a big chunk of the market because the price of a plug won’t be very large (like it is today).
Go electric vehicles!
And, go even more human-powered and hybrid human-electric vehicles.
Net zero mobility rules!
Let’s be real: Even if the Pure Electric Car turns out to be a failure, the Hybrid is already a success. Moreover, Toyota is selling a compact version of the Prius that sells under $20,000. The Chevy Volt though it’s a hybrid, is more electric car than I.C.E.!
I have owned a Leaf now for about six months. I find the automotive press reviews of the car astonishingly negative and quite dishonest.. My experience is that the car has great acceleration from a green light to 50 mph, leaving hulking SUVs and noisy pickups far behind. The car is also incredibly quiet and feels very solid. Recharges just fine overnight from 120v outlet. It appears maintainence will be limited to periodic tire rotation. Very satisfied with it. Yes it would be nice to have a little greater range, but expecting that will come with second generation batteries.
West Coast Electric Highway Expands to Washington, Now Extends to Canadian Border – CleanTechica ” bit.ly/KYiRni ” @JimHarris
The conservatives have also been blind to the large subculture using lead acid powered scooters to get around. When prices allow that group to switch to lithium the improvement in performance and range will be so substantial that it will be impossible to deny the electrification of transportation.
IBM expects to have its lithium-air batteries in full commercial production within 8 years. With 10 times the energy density of today’s lithium-ion batteries, the lithium-air battery will give electric cars a range of 500 miles per charge.
Once you can buy an electric car with a range of 500 miles per charge, who will want anything else?
“Once you can buy an electric car with a range of 500 miles per charge, who will want anything else?”
There will always be people stupid enough to want their gas guzzlers back. You know the ones; executives, politicians, people who watch Fox news…
Point is, why anything that run with oil should be subsidized ? Less taxed is fine, or no tax at all, but why should it be subsidized ?
One question though, how is electricity produced in the USA ? You wanna save oil, reduce CO2 emissions ? Make light cars.
Car engines are very inefficient in comparison to a power plant.
So it’s probably better to ride a car with electricity produced by a coal/gas plant than to ride the car on gas
or ride a bike.
Or walk.
I have a 2006 Prius and love it. Have even used it as an electricity generator when we have lost power. Back it out of the garage, plug in the inverter and a long extension cord. And enjoy a CFL light, TV, and fan. Wish the post offices would add solar PV panels to all sub-stations and switch to hybrid or electric delivery vehicles. Unfortunately, tea party legislators prevent that.
Would you rather own the Hummer brand or the Prius brand?
That “Hummer is more green than Prius” meme was a red meat feeding frenzy at the time. If only the denier crowd had walked their own talk and invested big in Hummer.
Instead they are paid to convince other people to pour their hard earned dollars into one carbon bubble after another.