DaveD of Gardiner, ME I understand most car repairs are very costly. But, imagine you are in a hybrid, such as the 2008 Ford escape and you get rear ended while at a stop light.

The replacement cost of the NiMH battery pack located at the rear is in excess of $5000.report abuse

Chris of Brunswick, ME Sorry: the resale value of non-hybrids will be substantially lower than for hybrids.report abuse

Chris of Brunswick, ME About 4 years ago Toyota projected that in 2015 90% of the new vehicles they sell will be hybrids. If that projection holds, then in a few years the resale value of non-hybrids will be substantially lower than for non-hybrids.

At the same time the Japanese Yen is very high against the US dollar, so consumers will likely be taking a close look at hybrids from US car manufacturers. Therefore US car manufactures must shed their high cost structure due to union contracts, etc.report abuse

DaveD of Gardiner, ME The federal government has purchase over 112,000 flex fuel vehicles over the past decade at a cost of billions of dollars.

92% of that fleet still use conventional gasoline as a fuel.

These flex fuel systems aren't used because the sources (stations) aren't available. 37,000 post office vehicles designed to use high-grade ethanol are using gasoline - and, because of the way these systems are designed the fuel consumption actually rose by 1.5 million gallons in 2007.

Now it seems, the push is for electric cars. Where are you going to get the power from?

No hydro damns, no nuclear plant, no coal fired generators or wind farms have been built in Maine in decades.report abuse