How much will a hybrid car set you back?

Of the shrinking number of Australians planning to buy a new car over the next few years, an increasing percentage reckon their next car will be a hybrid. But how much do hybrid vehicles cost compared to petrol-fuelled models?

According to the Roy Morgan Automotive Currency Report, March 2019, 476,000 Australians intend to purchase a new vehicle in the next 12 months, compared to 612,000 last year and the long term average of 611,000.

These findings are similar to recent stats from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), which found that car sales have declined by 8% over the first four months of 2019, with 320 fewer car sales per day in April 2019 than there were in April 2018.

However, Roy Morgan also found that Australians intending to buy new cars are showing an increasing interest in vehicles with hybrid (petrol + electric) engines – 10.1% compared to 5.6% a year ago. All other fuel types saw declining preferences compared to the year before with the most popular (petrol) dropping from 63% preferred to 60% preferred.

Roy Morgan communications director, Norman Morris, attributed declining car purchase intentions to a range of factors, including concern about the slowing economy, lack of wage growth, energy price escalation and declining home values.

“In addition to these potential economic constraints on new vehicle demand, the rapidly changing technologies with the resultant fuel choice decisions adds to the complexity of decision making in this market.”

“This research has highlighted the need to understand the generational differences in likely fuel choice as the market changes. For example the early adopters of changing vehicle fuels are most likely to be millennials as they appear to be more likely to move away from the traditional petrol engine cars.”

So how much will a hybrid car set you back? To give you a general guideline,  here’s how much a hybrid Toyota RAV4, Mitsubishi Outlander, and Hyundai IONIQ could cost you from month to month and in total, based on starting prices from carsguide.com.au, and assuming a five-year car loan with an interest rate of 9.43% (the market average based on RateCity data at the end of April 2019):

Compare car loans in Australia