Hybrid registrations on the rise, 2007 figures show

Hybrid vehicle registrations rose in 2007 following rising fuel prices and growing awareness of the environment, according to two companies.

R.L. Polk & Co. figures recently released show there was an increase of 38 percent in the hybrid segment when compared to 2006, meaning 350,289 new hybrids hit the road last year. Swapalease.com is noticing a similar trend when it comes to hybrid leasing.

As hybrid vehicles become more mainstream, the segment will see similar traditional financing and lease penetration rates to those of the market overall. Considering hybrid vehicle sales made up only 2.2 percent of the total automotive market in 2007, it is premature to extrapolate an industry recognized lease penetration rate of 24 percent. As overall lease penetration and interest increases, Swapalease anticipates that leasing of hybrid vehicles will grow as well. Additionally, Swapalease.com is seeing a greater number of hybrid vehicle listings and ultimately more hybrid lease transfers since the beginning of 2008.

"When Hybrids first came on the market, Automotive Lease Guide (ALG) had not set residual values due to the lack of available data on the future values. Now they have established that hybrids are holding their values at a higher percentage than non-hybrids and national lease funders are comfortable writing competitive leases. Increased consumer demand coupled with the lower payments has caused a surge in the market that we see continuing," says Jerry Thompson, principal of autoleaseDIRECT.com.

This combination of consumer interest, industry acceptance, and the economic climate will result in even more hybrid leasing in the future. Swapalease.com reports it not only welcomes this trend, but also is working to stay in front as evidenced by their recently added "Green" search category which lists all hybrid vehicles available for lease transfer on its Web site.