Data Of The Day: An Interactive Map Showing EV/Hybrid Sales By Location

That orange dot in Washington DC is almost all in Virginia, and it's almost all due to HOV privileges, particularly on Interstate 66. Even a 28/28 MPG Highlander Hybrid can be piloted solo in I-66 HOV lanes during rush hour. I would guess there's a similar story behind many of those West Coast dots.

There are no more solo hybrids in the HOV lanes in California. That program expired July 1 of this year, to loud moaning and whining from the lucky ones who had the stickers. (see http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/carpool/carpool.htm for current eligible single-occupant HOV exceptions) Still, the SF bay area is a natural for hybrids - lots of slow freeway traffic and mild weather are the sweet spot for increased MPGs.

Around Seattle/Bellevue area I see A LOT of prii around, virtually daily and many of them are now used as taxis. I've also seen other hybrids and I doubt I've seen a Volt around and probably didn't know it was a Volt if I've seen one as they don't look remarkably different from a Cruze, which I've seen. I have seen more Fiats than I have Volts though, and that's both for the old and new models. Even Tacoma has their fair share of Prii and the Puget Sound region has some of the worst traffic in the nation. Don't know how bad it is today but about a decade or so ago, it was as much as 3rd worst to 8th worst, depending on the source you read. Since then, the region has and is still working on combating that congestion in a big way through increased bus and light rail/commuter rail use - especially in King County. The region is high on the small B/C segment car, especially foreign or derived.

Wow, we're the lowest city in the country, as far as I can tell, right down there with Odessa-Midland, Texas! Even Amarillo is double the ratio here. Of course, I'm in a town where the most prestigious firms to work for are Halliburton & Chevron and the patriotic thing to do is support the economy and create jobs by burnin' some gas! Saw a brand-new Astin Martin Rapide at the gym the other day, by the way. Lots of oil money floating around these days. Some of the cities on this map that are very low do surprise me, given the amount of driving that people do. Surprising not because those cities are the gridlocked mess that is DC or LA, surprising because of the amount of driving people do in low-density cities in the south, like Baton Rouge or Little Rock or Jackson - all very low on this map. Often times, unless you're willing to drive all over town to do your shopping, you're stuck with pretty lame neighborhood offerings. My doc's office moved across town - it's now an additional eight mile round trip on top of what it had been before, which was already ridiculous (guess who just got fired). I've found myself having driven twenty, thirty, or forty miles in one day, more than a few times, trying to get errands done. Bank. Alterations place. Gym. Target Store. Post Office. All miles apart. Life in the good ole' USA. To an earlier comment about Hybrids getting HOV lane privileges, that really steams me - my Golf gets better mileage (and is better on most emissions criteria) than all the hybrids sold in the US except two or three. So a bloated GM Hybrid Truck or a Lexus Hybrid SUV (what a preposterous and pretentious vehicle that is) gets HOV privileges when a 36 MPG real-world average Golf TDI (and I don't baby it to get that figure, by any means) is stuck in the slow lane. Not that there are any HOV lanes here, but I'm just sayn'.