Plug-in Sales Outpace Previous Hybrids

Well said.

Look at the incentives the government pays. Last month, a Prius Plug In got a $4,000 rebate from Toyota ($5,300 for a lease) plus $2,500 tax credit from the IRS ($0 if a lease) and $1,500 in rebate money from the State of California. So a $31K Prius Plug In winds up in the $23K range. And you get a carpool sticker to boot (they just ran out last month).

Full EV's get even more. The RAV-4 EV gets a $16,500 rebate from Toyota, $7,500 from the IRS and $2,500 from Cal. The '15 Leaf gets a $7.5K rebate plus $7,500 tax credits from the IRS and $2,500 rebates from Cal. And both get the carpool sticker.

If these incentives didn't exist, the sales numbers would be terrible.

I think that plug-in electrics will be unnecessary in the near future. Today's small hybrid cars get 50 MPG vs. 35 for a similar car running on a 4-banger gas engine, and that is impressive. With new battery technology coming soon (such as Aluminum/Oxygen) to extend the range for electric drive mode, and improvements in motors, hybrid cars will get even better MPG without plugging in.

Another trend is more efficient ways to charge the new batteries. Toyota has just designed a new linear engine that generates current directly and uses far less fuel than today's ICE. It also weighs far less than a 3 or 4 cylinder ICE.

I don't agree. Plug-in electric cars use no gas. Some plug-in cars now have a range of 300 miles. I don't own one, but being able to save $300-400 a month on gas sounds very tempting to me.

Also, inductive charging will become mainstream and parking lots and our home garage will have charging while at work, at the train station or at home without plugging in.

I did just think about a situation where you could be correct. The streets may have inductive charging built into the road, hence removing the need to charge the car at home or work.

Seriously folks, its a blog on a greeny web site. What were you expecting quality reporting?