Gas Price Increase By Year Comparable to Hybrid increase?

I didn’t go through all the numbers, but a few things stuck out. From 1990 to 1999 Gas prices ave about 1.19 Toping out @ 1.26 in 97 and as low as 90 in Feb 99. But Once the first real sales of hybrid cars started 2000 9,350 Sold
www.hybridcars.com...
Gas prices has increased along with the sales of Gas.
from 9350 sold in 2000 to 135000 sold as of Aug 2005
Gas Price rose from 1.26 in Aug of 1.27 in 2000 to 3.06 Ave right now (not taking in Katrina which I sure legitimately rose prices, The ave was 2.61 Cents)

www.fueleconomy.gov...
tonto.eia.doe.gov...

Now not that this should be a shock, but we certainly have been sold by the car makers that hybrids are the way. But if you increase the price of gas, you really don't save anything. Sure the Little gas guy loses but the people behind the scenes haven’t paid more for gas/oil production since 99.

Now I know my theory isnt iron clad, but I figure it certainly may spark the interest of someone with more time to research this further (if ya want)

PS for a funn thought,look at the price increase during Bush other than any other time since 44 LOL

Anyways though you may be interested.


[edit on 8-9-2005 by ShiftTrio]

[edit on 8-9-2005 by ShiftTrio]

sales of hybrids went up, but probably so did sale of cars overall. gas consumption is still increasing. If this isnt what you are talking about please be more clear.

thanks for the links, i liked the .gov one especially.

I agree cars sales increase, but at a steady rate along with gas on a normal increase level, until 2000 when the price increase in gasoline sales is over 150% Car sales haven’t touched that kinda of increase, but Hybrids have. IT seems like the companies knew more fuel efficient vehicles were coming and the only way to save there profits was to increase the price of gas along with the increase of people using this technology. Again not that this took brain surgery to figure out, it makes sense on a business level for the oil companies. It also seems kinda of odd that this increase happened the same year Bush took office and hasn’t stopped since. We have had more things to blame on the price of gas going up since he has been in, But are things like refineries and processing been damaged so much since the mid 90s. Its sure is suspicious, that oil /gas people are having such a string of bad luck that the prices need to rise this much in such a shot period of time. I know it’s a futures market, but its always blamed on some problem. Not just we are gonna jack it up because your gonna buy it and its good business.

At least it is suspicious to me =)

I wanted to Bump this Thread again, thought I was on to something, still looking for feedback

I don't think the sales of hybrid vehicles are driving gas prices. For one, hybrids make up such a small percentage of car sales that (for the moment, at least) their impact on demand is negligible.

The increasing popularity of Sport-Utility vehicles and 4x4 pickups probably has more impact on the price of gas than hybrids...note that, in spite of increasing sales of hybrids, total demand for gasoline is going up, not down.

Other things that factor into the price of gas at the pump:

Well-head price for crude - You might look at the price of the raw materials over time...and remember that when you read "so many dollars per barrel", the Standard Blue Barrel (yes, it's captialized for a reason) is 42 gallons....so $63/barrel means that it's costing BigOilCo $1.50 / gallon just to get it out of the ground.

Transportation cost for raw crude - Again, not sure how the price / gallon on this has behaved, but tankers aren't cheap, nor is pipeline maintenance.

Refining cost - Obviously, your car dosn't burn raw crude oil...in fact, not much does...it's actually not easy to ignite. It's got to be refined into usable forms (like gasoline), and the refineries that provide that service charge for it.

Transportation cost of refined products - See above, with the caveat that trucks and barges (while efficient) aren't free.

Taxes - Here in Arizona, about $0.44 / gallon of what I'm paying doesn't go to BigOilCo, it goes to Janet Napolitano (or at least to her administration) as taxes In some states, you pay more, in some, you pay less, but by (insert spiritual authority of choice *here*, you will pay).

End-distributor markup - The gas station owner has to make at least something per gallon to stay in business, and the cost of doing business certainly hasn't gone down in the last few decades.

Before linking hybrid sales to gas prices, you need to also look at all of the factors above (and probably a few more that I missed). It's not a simple relationship. In fact, just as food for thought....are the oil companies making record profits because of record markups on each gallon of gasoline? Or are they making record profits because they're selling more gallons of gas than ever before, at thinner margins?