Fuel Efficiency is the Most Important Factor When Americans Look for a New Car

Petrol prices have started to fall but still remain high enough to influence the actions of consumers. The American public are driving less, using less fuel, buying more fuel efficient cars, and many are actually choosing to forgo cars all together.

In order to make savings at the pump many Americans are looking to downsize their cars, buy hybrids, or buy cars with diesel engines.

A new survey carried out by the Consumer Reports National Research Centre found that 37 percent of Americans consider fuel economy as their top priority when looking to buy a new car, and 73 percent said that they would be willing to consider an alternatively fuelled vehicle in order to avoid large petrol prices.

Flex-fuel and hybrid cars offer the most popular alternatives, but many young buyers are just as likely to consider an electric vehicle; more so than buyers over the age of 55.

However electric vehicle sales have been lower than expected in the US, despite the fact that Chevrolet sold a record number of Volt’s during March.

The CEO of Nissan said that it’s far too early to draw conclusions about the electric vehicles. “I don’t want you to take a one-month or two-month sales result in one particular market to try to make your opinion about the evolution of a very important technology for the industry.”

By. Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com