{"id":92670,"date":"2015-04-16T17:01:31","date_gmt":"2015-04-16T21:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=92670"},"modified":"2015-04-16T17:16:25","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T21:16:25","slug":"10-american-cities-with-the-greenest-car-shoppers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2015\/04\/10-american-cities-with-the-greenest-car-shoppers\/","title":{"rendered":"10 American Cities with the Greenest Car Shoppers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Tesla Model S has won over many buyers with its performance, as well as its eco-friendly nature.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Spend some time out in Los Angeles and you\u2019ll spot a seemingly endless stream of Ferraris, Maseratis and other exotic sports cars. In fact, Southern California is the world\u2019s largest market for high-performance Mercedes-AMG models.<\/p>\n

But Tinseltown drivers also love their Teslas, and Toyota Prius hybrids, making L.A. one of the country\u2019s largest markets for green machines, as well.<\/p>\n

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Subscribe Now!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just in time for Earth Day, the folks at Cars.com probed their search data to see which cities have the most eco-friendly buyers. And they were in for a few surprises. For one thing, the Top 10 was made up entirely of West Coast cities this year. And while it might seem reasonable that places like Portland, San Francisco and LA made the cut, there were some smaller cities represented as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always seen that the Western U.S. shows more interest in going green, but this is the first time we\u2019ve seen nothing east of the West Coast,\u201d said Executive Editor Joe Wiesenfelder.<\/p>\n

(Chevy will soon offer both Bolt and Volt plug-based models. <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for more.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The research doesn\u2019t reveal why demand has grown so strong out West \u2013 or perhaps why interest has waned out East. But Wiesenfelder did acknowledge that, \u201cWith low gas prices, some car shoppers are turning back to less fuel efficient cars.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Chevy plans to add a third plug-based model and will stick with the potentially confusing Bolt name.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the other hand, West Coast fuel prices tend to run higher \u2013 LA and San Francisco drivers typically paying among the highest costs in the country. Meanwhile, California regulators have passed some of the country\u2019s toughest emissions standards, including the Zero-Emission Vehicle, or ZEV, rules that encourage use of battery-electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles.<\/p>\n

In turn, automakers have introduced a growing number of so-called \u201ccompliance cars.\u201d The Chevrolet Spark EV, for example, currently is sold only in California and Oregon. The basic availability of more products is likely to encourage at least some additional buyers, industry analysts suggest.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose megaplex ranks number one on the Cars.com green shoppers list. Eco-consciousness has become far more than a cult there. The same could be said in the relatively pastoral Monterey Peninsula which ranks second. Northern California\u2019s pastoral Eureka is next, while Santa-Barbara and surrounds come in next on the list, followed by Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s any place where fuel costs are even higher than LA, that\u2019s our 50th<\/sup> state, Hawaii. And with few places to drive, Honolulu may be ideally suited to accept the relatively short range of most of today\u2019s battery cars. It\u2019s sixth on the list.<\/p>\n

The high-tech hub of Seattle-Tacoma come in next, followed by the Sacramento region, which suggests that those California rulemakers might actually drive what they want other folks to buy. Increasingly crowded San Diego and the hipster epicenter of Portland round out the list.<\/p>\n

(Caddy cuts price, boosts performance of ELR plug-in. <\/em>Click Here<\/a> for the story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

While green cars have not gained the sales momentum advocates had hoped for, editor Wiesenfelder noted that the number of models \u201ccontinue(s) to proliferate.\u201d Tesla, for example, just added a new base model to its battery-car line-up. Mercedes-Benz is preparing to launch 10 new plug-ins by 2017, Chevy is adding a 200-mile range model, the Bolt, and Honda will soon join Toyota and Hyundai with a new hydrogen car.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere may be no better time to buy a fuel-efficient car than now, because low gas prices have reduced demand for hybrids and electrics,\u201d he added, \u201cresulting in special incentives from many automakers.\u201d<\/p>\n

(<\/em>Click Here<\/a> for our review of the new Tesla Model S 70d.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tinseltown drivers love their high-performance cars. They’re also big on green machines, making LA one of the 10 American Cities with the Greenest Car Shoppers. This year’s list, released just in time for Earth Day, contains a couple of real surprises, reports TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92670"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92670"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=92670"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=92670"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=92670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}