The new HYbridway

Late on Wednesday, Governor Schwarzenegger announced that solo-driving hybrid car owners would now be eligible to use the High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) carpool lanes--effective immediately. Eligible cars include the Honda Insight, Honda Civic Hybrid and Toyota Prius. Owners of such cars will have to buy am $8 sticker from the DMV to be able to bypass traffic. The legislation also limits to 75,000 the number of such stickers available to eligible hybrid electric vehicles, so with the number of California hybrid owners growing rapidly (already above 57,000) it would probably be a good idea to grab a sticker sooner rather than later. It remains unclear (at least to me) whether the HOV-access means that hybrid owners can bypass bridge tolls during commute hours, which would be a substantial savings for bridge commuters. The bill came under attack from Ford executives, who called it a "buy Japanese" bill because the SUV Escape hybrid--which touts a 35 miles per gallon rating--does not qualify. Ford may have a point. The Escape hybrid saves quite a bit of gas over the original--and savings from gas-guzzling SUVs is likely the biggest potential growth area for the hybrid market. Maybe the next incarnation of the bill should include gas savings in terms of the type of vehicle driven--45 miles per gallon for a sedan, and perhaps 35 miles per gallon for an SUV.