Alternative Fuel Autos Sale Exceeds Estimates by 50 Percent

Car buyers are now opting for fuel efficient vehicles offered by different car manufacturers. This is what the Auto Alliance announced as a way to start the celebration of the National Alternative Fuel Autos Week.

The group of car makers reported that there are now 10.5 million alternative fuel vehicles on U.S. roads according to 2006 sales data from R.L Polk and Co. The data also shows that last year alone, more than 1.5 million alternative fuel vehicles were sold. The figure surpasses the expectation of the auto industry by as much as 50 percent.

Today, car makers based in the U.S. or abroad are offering 60 models of alternative fuel vehicles. These include hybrid electric vehicles, flex-fuel vehicles which can run on a combination of gasoline and bio-ethanol, and diesel engine equipped vehicles which gets its juice from biodiesel.

Dave McCurdy, the President of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, has this to say during the announcement: “There are 10.5 million Alternative Fuel Autos on the roads and highways of every state across the country. We are happy to see that consumers are, in fact, discovering the alternatives that are available to them on dealership lots nationwide. We believe that the numbers of Alternative Fuel Autos on the roads continues to rise because consumers can choose from a variety of autos that reduce fuel use while still providing the utility, safety, performance and comfort they seek.”

While there are a lot of alternative fuel vehicle out in the market, car manufacturers are still looking for ways to develop more technology which will be employed by their vehicles to make them more fuel efficient. Alternative fuel vehicles are not the only vehicle to be produced with concern for the environment in mind though.

Conventional vehicles are also equipped with features that make them more fuel efficient and more eco-friendly. These features include fuel injectors, variable valve timing, continuously variable transmission (CVT), and exhaust filtration devices like the Nissan catalytic converter. These features allow even conventional vehicles to consume less fuel but still perform at the highest possible level.

In order to offer more fuel efficient vehicles, members of the Alliance have created partnerships with the alternative fuel industry to make alternative fuel more available to consumers. As of today, members of the Alliance have created over 25 partnerships with other industries to facilitate the development of newer alternative fuel technology.

The aim of the group is emphasized on McCurdy’s statement. “Having exceeded our sales expectations in 2006, we hope that 2007 will be another banner year for sales of Alternative Fuel Autos. This year marks the first-ever National Alternative Fuel Autos Week and automakers hope to draw more attention to the availability of these autos currently for sale.”