CBS MW: Women Becoming Hybrid Fans

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Cynthia Stine was looking to turn heads when she chose an aerodynamic, aluminum-bodied Honda Insight to replace her commute-worn 1987 Honda Prelude.

The car's radical design extended far beyond its body lines. As one of two gas-electric hybrid models now on the market, the vehicle appeals to drivers who want to improve their gas mileage and reduce pollution at the same time.

A growing number of women are checking out the ecological benefits of the hybrid cars' low emissions, car experts said.

"Women are more practical," said Stine, 35. "They'll say, 'Wow, it's a really good price and it's a no-brainer for the environment and it will do what I need it to do."

Targeting women

To be sure, early adopters in the hybrid market are technology-savvy men more often than women. Men account for 57 percent of Toyota (TM: news, chart, profile) Prius owners and 65 percent of Honda (HMC: news, chart, profile) Insight buyers.

But as more hybrids become available across the U.S., women soon may prove to be the consumers driving their sales. Drawn by greener technology and better gas mileage, women are showing more interest in hybrids and are poised to eclipse men as the market matures.

In fact, 35 percent of women said they'd strongly consider buying a hybrid car compared with 28 percent of men, according to a J.D. Power survey of 5,200 recent car buyers.

"That's enough to cause advertisers and manufacturers to want to tilt marketing and cater to females more than they do in the conventional vehicle market," J.D. Power alternative power technologies director Thad Malesh said.

Men, on the other hand, are more likely to regard hybrids as the automotive equivalent of Viagra.

"They're not interested in the technology until it's proven that performance -- acceleration, etc. -- is on par with a gasoline engine," Malesh said.

How hybrids work, who's making them

The two-seat Honda Insight coupe and the Toyota Prius four-door sedan run on a combination of regular gasoline engine and an electric motor. The hybrids recharge their batteries when the brake is engaged by shutting down at stoplights and restarting automatically, reducing emissions and boosting fuel economy.

Unlike earlier all-electric models such as General Motors' (GM: news, chart, profile) EV-1 and Toyota's RAV 4 EV, hybrids don't need to be plugged in.

Honda is adding a hybrid Civic to its growing ecologically friendly fleet and will begin selling it next month. Meanwhile, Ford (F: news, chart, profile) plans to launch a hybrid version of Escape, one of its smaller sport utility vehicles, in 2003. The hybrid Escape would aim to boost fuel economy to 35 miles per gallon from 23 in city driving and 27 on the highway, Ford spokeswoman Ellen Dickson said.

Women's auto preferences already are registering on Ford's marketing radar, Dickson said. "The female audience has always been a strong one for SUVs for obvious reasons, and the Escape would play into that."

Performance questions

While some men have reservations about hybrids' performance, the two now available don't have far to go to catch up with the conventional crowd.

The Toyota Prius accelerates from zero to 60 miles per hour in 12.6 seconds, Consumer Reports' senior auto test engineer Gabriel Shenhar said. "It's not great, let's be honest, but it's no worse than a diesel-powered Volkswagen Golf that we also tested."

The Honda Insight manual version did even better -- a little more than 11 seconds from zero to 60. But it fell short on other qualities such as handling and required a lot of down-shifting, Shenhar said.

"The Insight was a very compromised two-seater that was noisy and uncomfortable and not very practical," he said. "The Prius was a viable alternative to any sedan that seats five."

As for fuel economy, the Toyota Prius rates at 41 miles per gallon while the Honda Insight garners 51 miles. The conventional Honda Civic now gets 32 miles per gallon while the hybrid is aiming for just short of 50, Malesh said.

Stine, who drives her Insight around the Dallas metropolitan area as well as on longer trips, estimates she saves about $15 a week in gas and can push fuel economy to its higher limit in the spring. "Right now since I'm not using the air conditioning and it's not that cold, I'm actually getting closer to 60" miles per gallon, she said, noting that her Honda Prelude gets half that mileage.

There are now about 6,000 Honda Insight and 20,000 Toyota Prius owners in the U.S., and the cars sell for around $20,000 each. Toyota increased Prius production by 40 percent this year to satisfy demand.

One of the biggest unknowns of the Insight, introduced in late 1999, and the Prius, out six months later, is whether they'll retain their resale value, Shenhar said. "They haven't been out long enough to know that."

Women more likely to pay a premium

A consumer survey from Internet car-buying site Autobytel (ABTL: news, chart, profile) found women similarly enthusiastic about hybrids, with 67 percent saying they would definitely or strongly consider buying a new vehicle if it was available with the same styling and features of their current vehicle, compared with 55 percent of men.

And they'll spend more for the privilege as well. Forty-three percent of women said they're willing to pay up to $2,000 more for a hybrid vehicle versus 34 percent of men.

But online men appear to have more of a grasp on hybrid cars, with 70 percent considering themselves very or somewhat informed about them compared with 56 percent of women, the survey said.

Overall, automakers are just waking up to women's growing environmental consciousness. Take Silandara Bartlett, 25, who said she'd like her next car to be a Prius "to make a statement and to support technologies that are good for our world."

Kristen Gerencher is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com in San Francisco.