S.F. garage takes hybrid approach to ‘green' cars
S.F. garage takes hybrid approach to ‘green' cars
Luscious Garage, located in South of Market, was the first automotive shop of its kind in the nation to specialize in servicing hybrid cars. Owner Carolyn Coquillette opened the shop in 2007 after observing the rapid increase in hybrid cars in the Bay Area.
In the past two years sales of hybrid cars have jumped dramatically largely attributed to when gas prices were reaching over $4.00 a gallon. The Bay Area now has over 100,000 registered hybrid cars, according to Berkley's Bradley Berman, editor of HybridCars.com. The Bay Area has the nation's second highest concentration of hybrid cars sold in 2008 with nearly 9 hybrids sold per 1,000 residents.
President Obama has unveiled new emission standards that require automakers to produce vehicles that average 35.5 miles per gallon, and 39 mpg for passenger cars, by 2016. This is good news for hybrid cars, seeing as how the only cars that currently get 39 mpg are 5 hybrid cars.
SF Chronicle-05/26/2009