Guangzhou Auto Show

Several years ago, you could get a Federal tax credit for buying a hybrid-electric vehicle. That program has ended. Several manufacturers--Toyota, Honda, and Ford among them--reached their cap of 60,000 hybrids sold, and now hybrids represent 2 to 3 percent of the U.S. market without Federal incentives. The goal of the program was to encourage sales of hybrid cars at a time when consumers were wary of the new technology. The same logic now applies to the current Federal tax credit (and other state, local, and corporate incentives of various kinds) for purchase of a plug-in car. Now, in the...