Civic responsibilities.

Byline: ED RUSSO The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran 5/30/02): It costs $60 to register a hybrid passenger vehicle in Oregon for two years, compared with $30 for a gas-only powered vehicle for the same period. A Sunday Business article had incorrect periods for the fees.

SPRINGFIELD- Judy and Mike Kelly thought about buying a gasoline-electric car for a couple of years, but, for various reasons, kept their checkbook closed.

Last month, however, the Springfield residents flipped their checkbook open and became among the first people in Lane County to own Honda's new Civic Hybrid.

Judy Kelly said she wanted to buy a hybrid, which runs on both gasoline and electricity, because it guzzles less gas and spews less pollution than a conventional gas-powered car.

"I feel like I need to do a very small part for the environmental issues, and for less dependence on foreign oil," said Kelly, who manages two obstetrics and gynecological clinics, one in Eugene the other in Springfield.

The Kellys (he is Springfield's city manager) finally bought a Civic Hybrid because - while they had looked at the first mass-produced hybrids, the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius, about two years ago - they felt more comfortable buying a well-known, familiar Honda model.

The Honda Civic Hybrid, which reached dealerships last month, is the first established mainstream vehicle to be equipped with the combination gasoline-electric power system.

Some people think the new Honda Civic Hybrid will be the first hybrid to appeal to a larger number of Americans.

"It's a significantly more mainstream vehicle," said Charles Freeman, general manager of Kendall Honda/Acura in Eugene. "It's a five-passenger car with normal luggage capacity, and it has the potential to be a far better sales volume vehicle" than the two-seat Insight.

Hybrid electric motors supplement and often replace gasoline engines as the main power source at lower speeds. The cars pollute less than gas-only combustion vehicles, and do not need to be plugged in to recharge batteries. The batteries recharge during driving.

Honda's Civic Hybrid is essentially a fully-equipped Civic EX minus the moonroof.

It looks and runs pretty much like a standard Civic, except that it gets 46 to 51 miles per gallon instead of 31 to 38.

"We have had several Hondas in the past," Judy Kelly said, including an Accord that she drove for several years.

Her new Civic, she adds, "looks like a normal car."

By contrast, the Insight and the Prius have a bulky, somewhat clunky look.

Kelly said her Civic is averaging about 42 miles to the gallon in mostly city driving.

With their comparatively high prices and small sizes, the Insight and Prius have been relatively slow sellers since they were introduced in the United States in late 1999 and early 2000, respectively.

So far, Americans have bought about 35,000 of them - a tiny blip compared to the more than 16 million cars sold in the United States each year.

Money matters

In spite of their promise, the new Civic Hybrids won't be as popular as the well-known gas powered versions for at least a couple of reasons, Freeman, the Kendall manager, said. One reason is upfront costs - though tax breaks can go a big way toward reducing those costs.

With a manufacturers' suggested retail price of $21,010, a Civic Hybrid costs about $4,700 more than a gas-powered Civic.

While hybrid owners must pay $60 a year in annual state registration fees compared to $30 for gas-powered vehicle owners, tax incentives help offset the higher cost of the fuel-thrifty vehicles.

Hybrid buyers can qualify for a one-time state tax credit of $1,500, plus a federal income tax deduction that, depending on one's tax bracket, could be worth as much as $2,000, Freeman said.

The hybrid is supposed to get about 13 miles more per gallon than a conventional Civic, but the sticker price difference might be too great for some people to overcome, particularly if gas prices remain stable, Freeman said.

The savings on gas money don't come close to covering the price difference, so buyers typically are motivated by something else - environmental concerns.

An all-gas Civic getting 31 mpg consumes 322 gallons over the course of 10,000 miles. At $1.45 a gallon, that's $466 in gas costs.

A hybrid getting 46 mpg would burn through 217 gallons, costing $315. The savings: $151.

Another drawback to the hybrids is the technology, which can be intimidating.

All in all, it's likely the Civic Hybrid will appeal only to a limited segment of the population, Freeman said.

Still, Freeman expects to sell many more electric-assisted Civics than the 19 Insights that have left his lot in the past two years.

"The whole idea of putting much less emissions into the air and sucking that much less oil out of the ground is a pretty great thing," he said. "When you consider the cost to the environment, those are really important things to people in this area."

The Kellys were the second couple to buy a Civic Hybrid from Kendall Honda, Lane County's only dealership for new Hondas.

The first buyers, Freeman said, were an elderly couple who had heard about the car.

When they came to the dealership, a shipment of new Hondas, including a Civic Hybrid, were on a tractor trailer waiting to be unloaded.

The couple walked up to the new car and placed the order on the spot, Freeman said.

Toyota offerings ahead

At Lithia Toyota in Springfield, general manager Greg Coleman said he has sold about 30 Priuses in the past two years. He said he has trouble keeping the car in stock, mainly because Toyota's limited production doesn't keep up with demand.

Honda's Civic Hybrid may be grabbing headlines now, Coleman said, but Toyota will introduce its own mainstream model hybrids, including SUVs and pickups, in a couple of years.

A recent survey by California-based auto research firm J.D. Power and Associates, found that 60 percent of 5,200 new car buyers said they would consider buying a hybrid if the technology were available in the car they already drive, said Thad Malesh, director of J.D. Power's alternative power technologies.

J.D. Power is forecasting that within four or five years, Americans will buy half a million gas-electric hybrids annually from all manufacturers. That would account for roughly 3 percent of overall sales.

Malesh also expects there to be 20 models of hybrid vehicles on the road by 2007.

``This is the wave of the future,'' Malesh said. ``All the industry is going to go this way.''

Nonetheless, there's no guarantee fickle American car buyers will buy them, said Csere Csaba, editor-in-chief of Car and Driver magazine.

``There's no evidence that Americans in large numbers care about fuel economy,'' he said. ``They always answer `yes' on surveys, but then buy SUVs. It's like asking people if they want to lose weight and they say `yes,' but then go out and buy chicken-fried steak and fries.''

Yet, Csaba expects hybrid sales to grow when car companies introduce SUV and pickup truck hybrids.

Ford Motor Co. plans to introduce a hybrid version of its Escape next year that gets 40 mpg, and Chevrolet is planning a hybrid pickup truck in the next couple of years, he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

CAPTION(S):

Judy Kelly and husband Mike waited for a familiar model to be introduced before buying a hybrid vehicle. The Honda Civic Hybrid fit the bill.