Many commercial and government fleet managers are increasingly relying on hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) to help protect their budgets from increasing fuel costs and reduce emissions of their fleets. Fleet managers who calculate a lifetime cost for their vehicles are able to look past the higher initial costs for vehicles by looking at the overall cost including fuel and maintenance.
In many areas with inexpensive fuel, these lifetime costs are still higher for hybrid vehicles than traditional vehicles, resulting in the need for grants, tax incentives or marketing benefits to justify the higher cost. Fleet managers mandated to reduce emissions often look to HEVs to replace traditional vehicles in order to meet emission reduction requirements. As they become available, fleet managers are also interested plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), though concerns about vehicle size and availability may limit fleet applications of these vehicles initially.
Pike Research, a market research and consulting firm that provides in-depth analysis of global clean technologies markets, anticipates that the fleet market for hybrid electric passenger cars and light-duty trucks is expected to grow at a rate of 18 percent between 2010 and 2015, resulting in sales of more than 740,000 hybrid fleet vehicles worldwide in 2015. Hybrids will account for 3.7 percent of global light-duty vehicle fleet sales in 2015, while the largest single market, the United States, will see hybrids reach 7.4 percent of light duty vehicle fleet sales.