A Look at Hybrid Vehicle Loyalty and Ownership

摘要

In a news release dated April 9, 2012, Polk stated that only 35% of hybrid owners bought a hybrid again when they returned to market in 2011. These findings were based on an internalstudy conducted by Polk. The study also indicated that if repurchase behavior among the highvolume audience of Toyota Prius owners wasn't factored in; hybrid loyalty would drop to under25%. This news release has generated a lot of interest and concern by the automobile industry aswell as consumers, since it was published, and caused many to think about the idea of hybridloyalty as well as factors that influence consumers. Most reactions to the 35% hybrid loyaltydealt with concerns of the viability of hybrid technology as part of the solution to addresstransportation energy challenges.This paper attempts to shed more light on Polk's hybrid loyalty study as well as explore severalinformation sources concerning hybrid loyalty status. Specifically, major factors that mightimpact the selection and acquisition of hybrid vehicles are addressed. This includes investigatingthe associations between hybrid market shares and influencing factors like fuel price and hybridincentives, as well as the availability of hybrid models and other highly fuel efficient vehicleoptions. This effort is not in-depth study, but rather a short study to see if Polk's claim could bevalidated.This study reveals that Polk's claim was rather misleading because its definition of loyalty wasvery narrow. This paper also suggests that Polk's analysis failed to account for some veryimportant factors, raising the question of whether it is fair to compare a vehicle drive train option(which hybrids are) with a vehicle brand in terms of loyalty and also raises the question ofwhether hybrid loyalty is even a valid point to consider. This report maintains that Polk's studydoes not prove that hybrid owners were dissatisfied with their vehicles, which was a commontheme among reporting news agencies when Polk initially released their findings. In this briefreview, the team has looked at factors that might contribute to a consumer choosing to notpurchase a hybrid; including the increase in manufacture's overall vehicle mpg and the percentage of the vehicle market owned by hybrids.