La Venta Pronosticada De Los Carros Híbridos

Global Business and Management Research: An International Journal (2011)

Analyzing the Potential Market for Hybrid Cars: A Survey of Car Dealers in Mauritius
Mohummud Khaled Bhunnoo, Vanisha Oogarah-Hanuman, and Rooma Roshnee Ramsaran-Fowdar
1

Mediterranean Shipping Company (Mauritius) Ltd, Mauritius 2 University of Mauritius, Mauritius 3 CQUniversity, Australia

Abstract Purpose - Theaim of the study was to know how car dealers view the car market in Mauritius and what are their opinions and attitudes towards the introduction of the hybrid car in the economy. Design/methodology/approach - After conducting a thorough literature review, a descriptive research design was adopted to carry out a quantitative study. The methodology used in this study consisted of a survey carriedout amongst car dealers in Mauritius. There were 59 authorized car dealers for second hand cars and 14 dealers of brand new cars in Mauritius at the time the study was performed and personal interviews were held with all the car dealers. The data were collected and analysed using SPSS. Findings - The car dealers expressed their optimism regarding the many benefits consumers will gain from hybridcars given the soaring prices of fuel these days but thought the car was affordable to only a minority of the customer market. They also thought the government and politicians would be the key players to promote any new technology. Originality/value - The contribution of this study is that it surveyed car dealers’ views regarding the introduction of the hybrid car in a developing country. It can be avaluable study for Mauritius and other countries which have not yet introduced the new technology locally. Moreover, there are few academic papers on the marketing of the hybrid car and this study thus hopes to contribute to the scanty literature. Keywords: Hybrid Cars, Mauritius, Carbon Emission, New Technology Adoption, Innovation Diffusion Paper type: Research Paper

Introduction Nowadaysthe world depends heavily on transportation media and due to environmental changes that include among others global warming, the transport sector has had to be modified to keep up with the demand. The demand for today’s vehicle is mostly low fuel consumption, low emission, recyclable, more secure, fewer mechanical problems, ease of driving with lots of electronics and peace of mind. Cars are nowconsidered as a basic necessity and form part of our daily routine life. The car industry has evolved and due to fierce competition from players around the world, choosing the right car has become quite difficult (as mostly all manufacturers have strived to meet international standards and conformance). Market analysts predict that hybrid vehicles will become the new trend in automobiles by replacinggasoline-powered vehicles in the near future (Hybridcars, 2006). In 2000, when the first hybrid car was mass produced for the Japanese and American market, nobody thought that it would gain so much popularity.

GBMR Vol. 3, No. 2, 2011 pp. 215-230

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Global Business and Management Research: An International Journal

With the rise in price of the crude oil and due toits possible shortage in the next few decades, the hybrid technology has been adopted more rapidly in order to limit the disaster, considering the dependence on transport around the world. Pollution, global warming and CO2 emission have become global concerns and if we do not react now, the future appears gloomy for mankind. Being a nascent industry, the hybrid car market has limited presence.However, the size of the market has been growing and manufacturers targeting this market are accelerating their development strategies. On the global level, the US dominates the hybrid sales followed by Japan and Europe, while Toyota and Honda lead the bandwagon of global carmakers (Wikipedia, 2011; Green Vehicles, ٢٠٠٨). Currently, only few players are dominating the global hybrid industry but a...