To print this article open the file menu and choose Print. Click here to return to previous page Article published Apr 23, 2007 Apr 23, 2007 Motor voters Taking action to save the planet, hybrid owners love their wheels By Mary Jo Hill TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF mhill@telegram.com Back in 1999, Craig Van Batenburg of Worcester saw a Japanese Web site that said hybrid cars were going to be sold in the United States, so he headed to a dealership that December to buy a Honda Insight. “What is it?” the salesperson asked. The mechanic explained what he wanted and got his hybrid, taking it apart to figure out how it worked, he said. His wife still drives the Insight. No longer strangers on the road, hybrids, which can run on a gasoline engine or an electric motor, have become national media darlings, what with all of the news coverage about global warming and greenhouse gases. They account for just over 1.5 percent of all new U.S. vehicle registrations. It’s a trend that has made a ripple in Central Massachusetts, with every community in Worcester County except one having hybrids registered last year. Worcester County residents registered 10 percent of the total 13,829 hybrids in Massachusetts, according to data from the state Registry of Motor Vehicles as of Aug. 10. Last year, 7,365 new hybrids were registered in Massachusetts, up from 6,060 in 2005, according to R.L. Polk & Co., a provider of auto information. Worcester ranked at the top of communities in Worcester County, with 167 registered hybrids, followed by Shrewsbury and Westboro, while New Braintree, Phillipston and Royalston each had two hybrid vehicles registered, the RMV shows. East Brookfield was the only community in the county without a hybrid registered. Barbara L. Hale, a 53-year-old Sturbridge resident, will have owned her Toyota Prius for three years come August. “I love it,” she said. The savings on gasoline wasn’t so much of the appeal as was the smaller carbon footprint, or impact from carbon dioxide emissions, said Ms. Hale, an administrator at the Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church. Even in winter, the car gets more than 40 miles per gallon, and right now about 48 miles per gallon, she said. “It’s just been one of the best purchases I’ve ever made,” Ms. Hale said. When she bought the car, demand was high so it took 11 months before the Prius — the nation’s top most registered hybrid since its 2000 debut — arrived. Once it was on the road, the questions began. “I had a number of people ask me whether I had to plug it in,” Ms. Hale said. She said the car recharges while it’s being driven. And some people thought she had to choose whether to power it with gas or the electric battery, but the car switches between the two on its own, she said. James Dunn, 62, of Millbury is an independent energy consultant who helps put on the WICN public radio show “This New Car,” about alternative fuel technologies. He owns two hybrids now, and has owned three others. His record gas mileage is 69.3 miles per gallon in his Camry, he said. Hybrid owners are very loyal, Mr. Dunn said. “It’s sort of a cult thing,” he said, though now that he’s driving a Camry, and not a distinctive looking Prius, he said he’s gathering a little different circle of friends. Owners of the cars are so enthusiastic that when Mr. Dunn held a party on a very cold January day, 70 hybrid owners showed up, he said. The cars may be a little expensive for some people living in the Worcester area, Mr. Dunn said. But the vehicles do have a payback for owners with the cost savings in gas, he said. The premiums for hybrids range from about $4,000 to $9,000 more than the cost of traditionally powered vehicles, according to the Polk Center for Automotive Studies. Mr. Dunn described the typical owner as a woman, often the one who makes the household decision about cars, and he said that most owners are educated and have an average income that’s a little higher than usual. The Polk Center’s 2005 survey of consumer attitudes toward hybrids found that nearly 70 percent of those polled thought hybrid buyers were influenced by economic factors, especially fuel efficiencies and rising gas prices, and only 20.8 percent by environmental appeal. There aren’t any major negatives to the cars, Mr. Dunn said, although some have had problems with tire wear, and the rear view from the Prius is blocked by a horizontal cross bar in the hatchback. Kim M. Dembrosky, 37, of Gardner said her husband, Christopher, who’s an engineer, always wanted a hybrid. So when she went in to have her car’s oil changed two years ago at a dealership and saw a Prius, she took a ride and they ended up buying it. The Prius has a screen that shows use of the electric battery, and fuel and gas mileage. “My kids call it the space car,” said Ms. Dembrosky. It also has a GPS system and Bluetooth wireless technology for speaker phone use, she said. The mileage hits the high 40s and low 50s in summer, and drops in the winter to the high 30s or low 40s, said Ms. Dembrosky, a Gardner city councilor. Gas mileage can decline in the winter when the air is thicker and there’s more resistance, tire pressure drops, and there’s a lower BTU rating for the gasoline, among other things, said Gilles Labelle, a 63-year-old Hudson resident who’s known to some as “Monsieur Hybrid.” Mr. Labelle sells cars, including hybrids, at Westboro Toyota and runs a Web site, Hybrid Center of Massachusetts ( http://www.hybridcenterma.org/), designed to educate people about the vehicles. The retired chemist said most of his hybrid customers are women who are thinking more about the environment, while men tend to think more about a car’s horsepower. Last month, 24 percent of the sales at Westboro Toyota were hybrid vehicles, said Mr. Labelle. Mr. Van Batenburg said he believes hybrids are doing well in the Worcester area because there are a lot of free thinkers, and bright people because there are so many colleges, he said. “The technology behind it appeals to engineers and people who like technical things,” said Mr. Van Batenburg, 56, who travels the world teaching people how to repair hybrids. The owner of the Automotive Career Development Center is a self-described “old hippie from the ’60s” who used to drive a Volkswagen bus. So the hybrid “fit into my politics. It fit into my religious beliefs. It’s like they built it just for me,” Mr. Van Batenburg said. Today he owns seven hybrids but acknowledges he doesn’t need that many cars. He and his wife have two sons they adopted from foster care, and Mr. Van Batenburg hopes to loan some of his cars to foster mothers, who he said typically drive “old beaters” because they don’t have much money. Ms. Hale said she’ll drive her Prius “until it can’t go anymore.” Unless, of course, she said, a better technology comes out. Contact reporter Mary Jo Hill by e-mail at mhill@telegram.com. Order the Telegram & Gazette, delivered daily to your home or office! www.telegram.com/homedelivery Copyright Worcester Telegram & Gazette Corp.