Featured California mulls unlimited HOV lane access for plug-in hybrids to 2019 and EVs to 2025

I guess a few people get use out of the Dulles free HOV but in Virginia we are basically phasing out free HOV on the roads (I66/I95) where most would need it.

 

In calif it's the dual purpose of getting more folks off the road by carpooling & making less smog. God forbid they up the vehicle occupancy to 3 or 4 people in stead of just 2 folks. Then, instead of uber low range phev's just allow EV's. But yea, that won't deter the scofflaws. Making the lane move faster through less people being entitled seems to make the cheat temptation even greaer. Just yesterday I had a Model S in front of me in the HOV lane. White sticker entitled, but no stickers.
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With so many cheating, in Northern California the law isn't much of a deterient. CHP says they try to keep cheating to <10% but survey says it was at 41% in 2015. I see dozens misusing the carpool lanes every morning, including Amazon delivery drivers.

"California carpool cheating, tickets are on dramatic rise"

 

i don't see any reason to give ev's priority, unless the source is less smoking than a prius.

 

It's called "special Interest group"...you know...the "special" rich liberal greenies.

 

Since this is in California, it is safe to say the grid is less carbon intense than a Prius there.

The Prius wasn't a car of the rich back when it got the benefit.

 

What year was that. This is from 2006
Profile of Hybrid Drivers

Prius drivers have always been higher income or wealth than other vehicle drivers. In 2007 prius buyers were higher income than other hybrid drivers. They skew older, male, and are home owners, I think if you fix for those factors they may not be much higher in wealth, but that is a wealthy demographic. Plug-in buyers appear to be wealthier but younger than prius buyers.

Initial adopters of just about all technologies tend to be wealthier than the group that buys the product without that technology, so this should not surprise us.

 

...tell you what , it was hard to get the total $3150 federal Hybrid tax credit for Prius because much over $100k it phased out because it forced AMT tax calc (that was a pain in the butt and was abandoned for future green car incentives)

 

point rested ;-)

 

I took rich in the post I replied too to refer to those that can buy a Tesla S.
Being wealthy was a requirement in order to afford a Prius.

 

Prius gen II was top 25%, which is about what plug-ins are now. Tesla currently are probably the top 10%. People with lower income choose not to buy these cars, its not that they can't.

So perhaps since I don't know your definition of rich, we can use income scales and wealth scales.

 

i wouldn't have bought my first prius in '04, if i had to worry about repair problem costs.

 

The gen2 was a $24k to $30k car; around the median price of a new car at the time. I brought it getting HOV stickers because I simply felt it didn't fit the "the "special" rich liberal greenies" group that supposedly pushed these plug in stickers. We've seen here that Prius owners don't fit some mold, and neither do plug in drivers.

I don't agree with the HOV sticker incentive, but I think it is mostly car manufacturers and dealers doing most of the lobbying to keep them going than any one segment of potential buyers.

 

Um sure, I don't think the prius or the model S fit the liberal "greenies" group. Many are independant or conservative, not just liberal. Many bought it to use less opec oil more than to cut green house gas. One thing though is both groups of initial adopters (gen IV prius may get outside that adopter range) had much higher incomes than median. This is to be expected. The model S is expensive so it hits the top 10%, while the prius and general plug-ins hit the top 25%. Will the model 3 get into median income levels (median household income in california is $61,000) maybe but not until at least 2020.

We have 2 different criteria - do incentives provide for higher investment, and do incentives get cars on the road. In the case of the prius in the US, the incentives didn't really do either, but that may be more about poor design of the incentives rather than problems with good incentives.

It definitely pulled prius sales forward to to 2006, but may have hurt sales in 2010 and later years. Losing the hov stickers ended in california in 2011 IIRC. High gas prices still sold the prius, so its difficult to attribute many additional prii from this short time period.

As for PHEV the HOV stickers definitely pulled sales forward and there are now 85,000 phev with hov stickers, along with around 100,000 bevs and ngv. That is 185,000 vehicles. I don't know if you expand it to 500,000 whether it does much good. One thing for sure is that if you kill the phev sticker, but continue with the bev sticker, more compliance bevs will be sold in california. I can not understand how this is a good thing, but hey the public pays for roads, and carb decides who gets to use the expensive lanes. I no longer live in california. If I did I probably would have leased a phev by now for the sticker, and be planning on a bev when that lease was over. With out the sticker I'd probably still have my prius (as I do now in my non sticker state) and be planning on leasing a phev when the gen II volt and improved i3 are competing later this year. Other than selling the cars earlier I'm not sure if 85,000 phev hov stickers will really create more phevs on the road in 2025 or if they have added at all to investment by the auto companies.

 

It is important to understand the difference between actual numbers and the words statisticians use to describe them. (Everyone knows the sayings about statistics don't lie, people do...)

- Anyone who buys any new car is higher income than the average car driver

Mike

 

Sure
BEV driver Median Income > Prius driver median Income > new car buyer median income > car owner median income

Gen II prius buyers were probably higher net income than gen IV buyers as value proposition has increased as initial adopter status has decreased.

 

Prius owners do tend to have a higher median income.

 

if I can Segway back to the op - most of SoCal HOV lanes are so jam-packed already that the only way more cars can benefit from them is if they add the fast lane to the HOV system ... basically making HOV 2 Lanes, which will further impact non HOV traffic. Diminishing regular Freeway Lanes might seem horrible, but low gas and more/multiple HOV lanes maybe the right offset. Might even bring more phev Vehicles into the system. Then - in addition, you'd have to add more Highway Patrol for all of The Scofflaw - offenders who would be cheating the system. It ain't a pretty world out there around 7 a.m. and around 4 p.m. .
.

 

Even here in northern california and the bay area all of the HOV lanes are packed during morning/afternoon commutes making them useless.

 

I wonder if a volt or PiP could run without its battery.