All of these factors have led to forecasts of between 100 to 120 new models being produces industry-wide in 2013 as the industry supply chain can now manage this run rate and diversity of models (Egbue, Long, 2012). Aggregating together the sources of data available from an analysis of the electric vehicle supply chain, it is reasonable to project that regular hybrids will growth from just under 300,000 units in 2013 to 500,000 by 2015 (Egbue, Long, 2012) (Weiss, Patel, Junginger, et.al., 2012). At 522K units, hybrids will be 55% of the total market size, which will be 900,000 total units. The plug-in models are expected to generate 200K units in 2015, and the balance in high-end battery-based electric vehicles including the Chevy Volt (Weiss, Patel, Junginger, et.al., 2012). Research indicates that the combining of hybrid and battery-based technologies could be the fastest-growing segment of all, attaining a 39% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2020.

Conclusion

Given the low TCO and the high...

Add to that the legislation in California and other states that allow these devices in the High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) and the case is even more compelling. As governments choose to recognize these vehicles as the future of public transportation there will be further tax advantages as well. All of these factors point to the need to own one.
References

Egbue, O., & Long, S. (2012). Critical issues in the supply chain of lithium for electric vehicle batteries. Engineering Management Journal, 24(3), 52-62.

Lave, L.B., & MacLean, H.L. (2001). Are hybrid vehicles worth it? IEEE Spectrum, 38(3), 47-50.

Voelcker, J. (2010). Global market review of full and plug-in hybrid vehicles - forecasts to 2017: 2010 edition: Chapter 3 estimates on market takeup. Bromsgrove, United Kingdom, Bromsgrove: Aroq Limited.

Weiss, M., Patel, M.K., Junginger, M., Perujo, a., Bonnel, P., & van Grootveld, G. (2012). On the…