17 Apr 2006 HEADLINE

Hybridfest 2006 Scheduled for Summer in Wisconsin

There probably isn't a more appropriate venue than Madison for an event celebrating hybrid vehicles.

Madison, which by some accounts has the highest per person ownership of hybrid vehicles in the country, will be the site of "Hybridfest 2006" on July 22 at the Alliant Energy Center, in conjunction with the Dane County Fair.

The event is so grass-roots you can almost smell the fresh clippings: The five organizers are volunteers with no ties to the industry beyond being hybrid owners.

"That's the neat thing," said Bill Robbins, one of the organizers. "All we really are is five hybrid enthusiasts locally who have found each other and said, 'Let's create this event.' "

The other organizers are Eric Powers, who created the Madison Hybrid Group; Richard Steeves; Linda Weidemann; and Bradlee Fons, who runs the Milwaukee Hybrid Group.

The nonprofit Hybridfest is the first such event the organizers know of, with people expected to attend from across the country, Robbins said, adding that the organizers hope to make Hybridfest an annual event, and possibly hook up with other groups to start similar events elsewhere.

"There have been smaller meetings but nothing on the scale of Hybridfest," Robbins said. "You would think it would be in San Francisco before it would be in Madison. The answer is it just takes a group of committed enthusiasts or fanatics to make it happen and this is where we happen to be."

Powers came up with the idea for the event, and the other organizers quickly agreed it was worth doing, Robbins said.

"What we want to do is have a single event where every possible hybrid car is found and where regular people who don't have hybrids can stop by and see what these things look like and talk to hybrid owners," Robbins said.

Local auto dealers - the sponsors include Zimbrick Honda, Smart Toyota, Gordie Boucher Lincoln Mercury and Lexus of Madison - will be on hand offering test drives, Robbins added, "but the neat difference is we'll have regular owners who can tell you what it's really like to have a hybrid."

The event will be funded by the sponsors and the $25 registration fee by the participating hybrid enthusiasts, but admission is free for the public.

The Dane County Fair is very supportive of the event, Robbins said.

"They are going to allow a hybrid in the midway with signage referring to Hybridfest," he said. "We hope to draw a lot more people by being co-located with the fair."

One interesting vehicle scheduled to appear at Hybridfest is a General Motors EV-1. GM eventually crushed those ill-fated electric vehicles but the automaker allowed UW-Madison to keep one it had on the condition it removed the "innards," which UW replaced to keep it a working electric vehicle, Robbins said.

Another expected big draw scheduled to appear is a "plug-in Prius" - a Toyota Prius hybrid with additional batteries added in the back storage area that give it about 40 miles of purely electric travel before recharging is needed, Robbins said.

"That's the real future I'm excited about," he said. "It's the equivalent of $1.10-per-gallon gas when you plug into the electric grid."

John Dolan, a salesman at Smart Motors known as "Mr. Hybrid," said that while Toyota officially doesn't approve of the plug-in Prius - the alterations void the warranty - it is working on a next generation power train that will provide much longer electrical operations.

Another big draw - perhaps the top draw for the average consumer - scheduled to appear is the hybrid Toyota Camry, which is scheduled to debut next month.

Dolan said Smart Motors, the region's top hybrid dealer, should have its first hybrid Camrys by Memorial Day. He expects big sales for the vehicle since it's the first hybrid mid-size sedan, noting that the dealership already has 20 to 25 orders without a big ad campaign.

"I'm totally convinced that once people actually see this car it's going to really take off," he said, noting that it will debut as gas prices are expected to be peaking with the start of the summer driving season, "and every time we've had a spike in fuel prices, Prius sales have gone through the roof."

The hybrid Camry will provide six-cylinder power with four-cylinder gas mileage of about 43 miles per gallon in the city, 37 on the highway, Dolan said.

The hybrid Camrys, which have more standard features than the base regular Camrys, will start around $25,000, which is $2,000 to $2,500 more than a similarly equipped regular Camry, Dolan said. That compares to the typical $3,500 to $4,000 hybrid premium.

Soaring gas prices since last year's hurricanes already have given a big boost to hybrid sales, Dolan said.

There were about 20,000 hybrid sales in 2002, 47,000 in 2003, 88,000 in 2004 and more than 200,000 last year. The 2005 sales included 107,897 Prius sales.

Smart Motors' sales of all vehicles are up 18 percent this year, with March being the dealership's best month ever as Toyota is poised to surpass GM as the world's largest automaker.

Dolan said Smart Motors still has a wait of four to six months from order to delivery for a Prius, although he added that sales could slow due to tax issues.

The very complex law governing tax credits for hybrid vehicles provides for different credits for different vehicles tied to their performance, with the credits phasing out over 15 months after an automaker sells 60,000 hybrids.

"That was done to protect U.S. carmakers who are either in the infancy of hybrid development or not making hybrids at all yet," he said.

Toyota, which will produce 100,000 hybrids for the U.S. this year, expects to hit the 60,000 mark by late June or early July. The full tax credit - $3,150 for the Prius and $1,300 for the Camry - will remain for the following quarter after 60,000 are sold, then phase out over the ensuing four quarters, Dolan said.

"So someone ordering a Prius now may not get the full credit" since it is based on the date it is delivered, not ordered, he said, whereas someone ordering a Camry may get it in time to get the full credit since the wait time at this point is expected to be shorter.

Toyota plans to offer hybrid models of all of its vehicles by 2012, which should only help the automaker extend its dominance, especially if gas prices keep rising, Dolan said.

"Every time you see a spike in gas prices, (hybrids) make more sense," Dolan said.