Research and Markets: Global Hybrid Cars - The Next Big Thing

DUBLIN - March 31, 2010: Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global Hybrid Cars - The Next Big Thing" report to their offering.

With the rapidly growing concern over carbon emissions in the environment paired with highly volatile fuel prices, the hybrid car industry is rising steeply. The hybrid car offers more benefits over other conventional cars, such as fuel efficiency, better reliability, low cost per mile, and environmental benefits, and that will drive the future of the hybrid car industry. The global automobile players are investing largely in the development of technologically advanced and better alternative fuel vehicles. The concept of hybrids emerged as the most feasible solutions to this environmental concern and is now a growing craze among the major car producers.

Currently, the US dominates hybrid car sales, Japan and Europe being the followers. While initially perceived as unnecessary due to the low cost of gasoline, worldwide increases in the price of petroleum caused many automakers to release hybrids in the late 2000s. They are now perceived as the most promising segment of the automotive market of the future. Many of the major car producers of the world are present in the global hybrid car industry with Toyota and Honda topping the list of global car makers, and many more are in the queue to enter the market. Worldwide sales of hybrid vehicles produced by Toyota have already reached the 2 million mark, with hybrids sold in 50 countries.

The industry is expecting much more investment in the near future. The size of the market has been growing and the car manufacturers who are targeting this market are further accelerating their development strategies. Ford Motor Company has recently revealed its aggressive electric vehicle plans to invest an additional $450 million, paving the way to build a next-generation hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicle in Michigan beginning in 2012. Fords hybrid sales for 2009 were up by 67 percent over the same period in the previous year.

Scope of the report:

• To study the factors supporting the growth of Hybrid cars globally.
• To identify the most economical structure being followed by the hybrid car makers.
• To identify the most active geographical region and player of the Hybrid car industry.

Chapter 1: Hybrid car segment is currently an explorable segment of the automotive industry. Almost all of the big giants of the automotive industry like GM, Toyota, Lexus, Ford, Honda and Hyundai, are involved in hybrid cars manufacturing, with Toyota being the list-topper. The major economies where these giants are playing include United States, Japan, Canada, United Kingdom and Netherlands. United States currently is the most active region in hybrid cars sales. By January 2010, the sales figure of hybrid cars in U.S. has already crossed the 2 million mark. This chapter of the report identifies the major players of the industry and the major geographies where the industry is doing well. The industry focus section gives an information regarding the main focus of the players out of fossil fuel based cars and hybrid cars. Geography wise industry analysis has been provided in detail, identifying the most active geography in the industry.

Chapter 2: The Segmental analysis chapter studies in detail, all the segments of the industry on the basis of drivetrain structure, the degree of hybridization and the source of power used by the hybrid car. This will help in understanding the industry in a better manner and knowing the different kinds of power sources being used by the industry.

Chapter 3: The introduction of the concept of Hybrid cars was one of the initiatives to follow up with the Kyoto Protocol in order reduces carbon emissions in the environment. But many other factors are supporting the industry including the cost efficiency, saving fossil fuels, better performance of hybrid cars as compared with other cars, subsidies and other tax exemptions provided by the government, prevention of environmental pollution and better reliability of hybrid cars. This chapter covers all those supporting factors in brief which are backing up the hybrid concept.

Chapter 4: Along with a lot many supporting factors, there are a few challenges also which the hybrid car industry is currently facing, including, the high initial costs, low awareness of the concept among the people and the availability of many other substitute cars like electric cars and bio-fuel cars.

Chapter 5: The chapter gives a detailed analysis of the most popular hybrid car model, the most popular hybrid car manufacturer and the regions covered by the player. This analysis will provide the reader with the most explored and the most potential segment as well as the region of the Global Hybrid car industry. This segment will also provide information on the pricing range of all the segments of the industry, including, segments on the basis of drivetrain structure, segments on the basis of the degree of hybridization and the segments on the basis of source of power used by the hybrid car, which will in turn help in identifying the hybrid structure being used by the most economical hybrid car model of the industry.

This report can be delivered in 3 business days.

Key Topics Covered:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. INDUSTRY OVERVIEW 1.1 Major players 1.2 Industry Focus 1.3 Industry Analysis - by Geography

2. SEGMENTAL ANALYSIS 2.1 By Drive-train structure 2.2 By Hybridization degree 2.3 By Power source

3. FACTORS BACKING-UP HYBRID CAR CONCEPT 3.1 Kyoto Treaty follow-up 3.2 Low cost per mile 3.3 Environmental Impact 3.4 More reliable than electric cars 3.5 Less dependency on fossil fuels 3.6 Better performance 3.7 Government incentives

4. INDUSTRY CHALLENGES 4.1 Higher purchasing costs / showroom costs 4.2 Low Awareness 4.3 Popularity of substitutes

5. ANALYSIS & CONCLUSION

Companies Mentioned:

• Honda
• Toyota
• Ford

For more information visit www.researchandmarkets.com/research/cab293/global_hybrid_cars.