Attitudes Towards Hybrid Cars

AL-FAISAL UNIVERSITY

Attitudes of Saudi Male Drivers towards Hybrid Cars

Yasser Zahra (120240) Ouais Saad (120212) Faisal Al Woseamer (120619)

Abstract In recent years, governments have been trying to reduce carbon emissions that cause the global warming. One of the main and major steps towards a green environment is reducing the carbon dioxide gases from automobiles. New technologies have been on the market for the past years, from pure electric cars, hydrogen-fuel cars to Hybrid cars. In this research, the different kinds of hybrid systems

In the study, 40% of surveyed consumers say that they are likely to test drive an electric car and 42% say they are likely to follow news stories and developments about electric cars. Of the 40% who say they are likely to test drive an electric car, 78% cited not having to use gas as a reason to switch to EVs, 67% cited less pollution, and 60% cited no oil changes or tune-ups. “For a new product category, interest in electric vehicles is strong and likely to grow as more vehicles enter the market and consumers become more aware of them,” said Chris Ely, CEA’s manager of industry analysis. Yet, while there is clearly a rising interest in the technology, many issues sit at the front of people's minds when it comes to EVs. 50% and 34% of respondents, respectively, thought that range and battery life were at the top of the list when it came to reasons they wouldn't purchase a plug-in. Issues of purchase price, reliability and a lack of robust charging infrastructure also ranked high in terms of concerns. 71% of people were also worried by the thought of running out of fuel on the road,

The number of annual sales of cars in Saudi is very high, around 800,000 cars have been sold, with the annual sales expected to increase up to one million cars in 2020, according to an article in Al-Riyadh newspaper (Alghamdi, 2012). That is almost the amount of sales in the United States. In normal cases that means more consumption of oil and more pollution. Whereas using hybrid cars will reduce fuel consumption and emissions in the transportation sector. Since Saudi Arabia has a huge area and the distance between main cities are long, hybrid cars can reduce the number of refueling and consequently time. The rate of the depletion of the reserved oil will be less, and that means more lifetime for the reserves. The more usage of hybrid cars will mean that more research and development (R&D) in this sector, which will result in the cost reduction of manufacturing hybrid cars.

The goal of this research is to study the consumers’ attitudes in Saudi Arabia towards considering buying Hybrids. The importance of this research is to fill the gap about consumers’ opinion considering buying Hybrids, since Saudi Arabia is one of the largest markets in the Middle