(Nov. 2, 2007) Aftermarket retailers and distributors who embrace hybrid technology will be able to secure their fair share of a potentially large emerging market, according to Craig Van Batenburg, owner of the Automotive Career Development Center.

"There are 1.6 million hybrid vehicles in the world and over 1 million of them are in the United States," says Van Batenburg, who presented the seminar Servicing Hybrid Vehicles: Get 'Er Done yesterday. "Projected sales of hybrids in the United States in 2007 is 380,000, which is up from 80,000 three years ago. This is a gigantic percentage increase, and there is no end in sight."

As the market grows, hybrids are no longer defined strictly by small and compact vehicles. General Motors will soon release its new GMC Yukon hybrid, and Porsche will offers its Cayenne SUV to the U.S. market in two years, he said. The 2008 model Ford Escape hybrid was redesigned and improved with software changes that will increase fuel economy.

Despite this, hybrid technology is being adopted very slowly by most aftermarket businesses in the United States, Van Batenburg says.

"This slow adoption rate is giving OEMs a free pass to keep all their hybrid customers because they have no place else to go," he says. "Hybrid owners will not take their car to any shop that does not boast the fact that they are hybrid-capable."

Hybrid owners tend to be well-educated, discriminating buyers who understand that not every shop is capable of working on a hybrid.

"The average hybrid owner makes $100,000 per year and bought the car in cash as a social statement to save the planet," Van Batenburg says. "Consumers with an environmental conscience can instantly change their car-buying habits by trading in their gas hogs for hybrid vehicles without any pain or sacrifice."

So how can aftermarket businesses compete with OEM dealerships by getting hybrid owners into their shops? Van Batenburg offered a maintenance schedule that he says goes above and beyond the OEM recommended schedule and will keep hybrids running better and lasting longer. He also made recommendations on scan tools and talked about opportunities in rebuilding battery packs instead of replacing them.

He is convinced that hybrids, not fuel cells, have a promising future in the automotive industry.

"The cost of hydrogen as a fuel will prohibit sales for 20 to 30 years," he says. "It costs $1 million per hydrogen fueling station because hydrogen cannot be transported. It must be produced on site, so every station would need its own hydrogen-processing station. The cost would be outrageous. By the time the hydrogen infrastructure is completed in the United States, electric car technology will be so far advanced there will be no need for a hydrogen fuel car."