Research Proposal

Proposal for Hybrid Vehicles Market Research

Kristie Lee, Kunwar Shahrukh, Miranda Cleplensky, and Lee Witt

Fort Hays State University

Proposal for Hybrid Vehicles Market Research

Hybrid vehicle market growth has exciting, yet daunting possibilities. Since the Toyota Prius became the first mass produced hybrid car in 1997, evaluating likelihood to purchase in new buyers has been a primary area of analysis (Youngs, 2012). Additional research into consumer satisfaction in users and likelihood to re-purchase, coupled with new buyer likelihood to purchase, would create a more complete evaluation of consumer views towards hybrid vehicles.

The main purpose of this study is to explore the cost and benefits of hybrid vehicles to consumers, and to propose recommendations for their promotion or discontinuation.

The objectives of this study are two fold: 1) To gather data on the cost benefits from the users of the hybrid vehicles and judge their satisfaction of their purchase. 2) To gather information from prospective automobile buyers and determine their choice for hybrid vehicles.

Analyzing the hybrid automobile industry poses two broad questions for both the user and prospective buyers. Former in terms of cognitive dissonance of their purchase and latter in determination of value of their purchase. The overall impact of the cost of energy also bears directly on the economic policy of the government. We intend to research both the micro cost/benefit savings to the customer and macro cost/benefit to the US economy.

Literature Review

The United States is the largest electric car market in the world. Through November of 2014, 83,647 electric cars were sold in America. This represents a 26-percent increase over the number sold during the same period in 2013.(Perkowski, 2014). Yet this can disguise decline in the market. Woodyard (2014) points out that from 2009 to 2014 the number of hybrid vehicles doubled, yet...