How low will the cost of hybrids go?

There’s a good post on Green Car Congress summarizing ICCT senior fellow John German‘s talk at the SAE Hybrid Vehicle Symposium last week. The gist:

Future improvements in P2 hybrid systems should drop high-volume direct manufacturing costs to about $1,200 by 2020—very close to the approximately $1,000 cost threshold required for mainstream customer acceptance. . . . Combined with the push from the proposed 2017–2025 CAFE/GHG standards, as well as manufacturers’ addition of additional consumer features and future synergies, the drop in cost will help pull hybrid sales out of their slow projected ramp-up over the next 8–10 years to enter a period of rapid mass market acceptance and roughly 70% sales penetration by 2030. . .

The full piece is well worth the read.