Fuji Heavy Industries recently announced they hoped to have their own hybrid vehicle available in 2012. Toyota will be providing technology support for the car.

Ikuo Mori, president and chief executive at Fuji Heavy said, “We will take advantage of our alliance with Toyota.”

Toyota is currently the biggest player in the hybrid arena, holding about an 80% market share for hybrids sold in the United States. Their biggest seller is the Toyota Prius and the , a car that uses both gasoline and battery power to fuel the engine. The 2010 model has optional solar power available. The Prius has an estimated gas mileage of 51 MPG for highway driving and 48 MPG for city driving.

There are three main advantages to owning a hybrid car.

1. Fuel efficiency. Since a hybrid vehicle uses a combination of a traditional gas engine along with an electric one, fuel efficiency goes up. Electric energy will fuel your car for part of your trips, conserving gas. This will result in a much lower day to day bill for gas.
2. Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Since you’re burning less fossil fuels, your car will pollute much less and be much kinder to the environment than a conventional auto. If many people were to switch to hybrid vehicles, the reduction of greenhouse gas would be significant.
3. Total cost of ownership. When you consider the possibility of getting a tax credit for purchasing a hybrid vehicle, along with the reduced payments you’ll be making for gas, you can see how a hybrid vehicle might cost you much less than owning a conventional gas engine car.

Hybrid cars are starting to catch on with car buyers in the industrialized world. Almost all major auto manufacturers now offer a hybrid vehicle, and for the first time a real race is occurring to see who can build the world’s most fuel efficient hybrid vehicle at the most affordable price.

If you’re considering purchasing a hybrid vehicle, you may want to act fast. The government is phasing out the hyvrid car tax credit on popular models, since the success of hybrids seems assured. They initially offered the incentives as a way to get people to start buying hybrids, but now that the market is growing, they’re backing off.

The success of hybrid cars is likely to continue. People are becoming more environmentally conscious, plus gas prices have tended to stay high for the last few years, which makes people consider alternatives. Add in the fact that hybrids are becoming much more stylish and feature-rich, and you’ll quickly see that hybrid vehicles are here to stay.

“The Energy Policy Act of 2005 replaced the clean-fuel burning deduction with a tax credit. A tax credit is subtracted directly from the total amount of federal tax owed, thus reducing or even eliminating the taxpayer’s tax obligation. The tax credit for hybrid vehicles applies to vehicles purchased or placed in service on or after January 1, 2006.”

The credit is available to the original car purchaser, and is based on a scale that’s derived from the make and model. Here’s the schedule for 2009. As you can see, the tax break ranges from $1.950 to $3,000, depending on the vehicle selected.

In certain cases, the tax break can mean it’s advantageous to upgrade to a hybrid vehicle. The main key is to consider a concept known as “Total Cost of Ownership.” When you add up the payments, minus any tax breaks, and then calculate the fuel costs/savings, you can roughly surmise whether purchasing a hybrid vehicle makes sense for you.

If you plan on getting a hybrid car tax credit, you’ll need to act fast. The government is phasing out these credits as American consumers start to adopt hybrid vehicles on a wider basis.

The success of certain vehicles is the reason the tax credits are being phased out. Take, for instance, how well Ford has done selling hybrids. They’ve done such a good job that the tax credit for their hybrid vehicles is being halved, before being eliminated completely.

“According to the IRS, Ford has sold 66,000 of its hybrids — mostly the less efficient Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner SUVs — while GM has sold half that. The law that created the tax credit presumes that any carmaker selling more than 60,000 hybrids no longer needs a tax credit to persuade buyers to purchase one.”

The tax credit on purchasing a Ford hybrid vehicle will be halved, from $3,400 to $1,700, before being shelved permanently.

The bright side should be somewhat obvious. Since these cars are selling better, chances are prices will become much lower. That means the government shouldn’t need to subsidize hybrids as they become more mainstream. It looks like the government program has worked, and now sales volume of certain hybrid cars is sufficient.