Just when it looked like electric cars were running out of juice, the return of $4 a gallon gasoline is generating new life for battery-powered vehicles.

Electric-drive vehicles, including hybrids, plug-in models and pure battery-powered cars, were the fastest-growing segment in the U.S. auto market in the first quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Sales of those models rose 49 percent to 117,182 vehicles in the first quarter, from 78,527 a year earlier before Japan’s earthquake and tsunami pinched output.

Electric cars and hybrids are surging in tandem with gasoline prices, which averaged $3.93 a gallon on April 3, approaching the July 2008 peak of $4.11, according to AAA. Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius hybrid and General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid electric car each had record sales in March. Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn repeated he’s “bullish” that pure electric cars will capture 10 percent of the market by 2020.

“There are a lot of concerns today that the electric car is going to solve,” Ghosn said yesterday in an interview at the New York auto show. “People don’t want to have to go to the gasoline station. They just want to fill their tank at home. They want to make sure they’re not paying too much money for their gasoline bill every month.”

Sales of the Nissan Leaf electric car will take off in August when Nissan begins producing it in the U.S., boosting output and possibly lowering prices, Ghosn said.

Ghosn’s view of one in 10 cars being electric by 2020 isn’t widely shared. LMC Automotive predicts 2 percent of cars in the U.S. will be electric by 2020. Add in gasoline-electric hybrids and plug-ins and the Troy, Michigan-based researcher’s forecast rises to 9.2 percent.

Ghosn’s forecast is “is way too optimistic,” said Mike Omotoso, LMC’s senior manager for powertrain forecasting. “Ten percent share for hybrids is achievable, but not for EVs. They will still be too expensive to become a mass-market product within the next 10 years.”

GM had halted Volt production for five weeks because of sluggish sales following a federal investigation into fires in the car’s battery, which resulted in the vehicle getting a clean bill of health. At a congressional hearing about the probe, Chief Executive Officer Dan Akerson said the car was being used as a “political punching bag.”

Rising sales last month spurred GM to restart Volt production one week earlier than planned. GM sold 2,289 Volts in March, a record monthly total for the car. The previous high was 1,529 deliveries in December.

“We’re adding a week back and that’s all you need to know,” Mark Reuss, GM’s North American chief, said yesterday in New York, showing a flash of anger over a car that has become a lightning rod for critics of government bailouts, including GM’s, in 2009. “We’re doing it because we sold a lot.”

Production will resume April 16, Chris Lee, a GM spokesman, said in an e-mail.

Separately, Akerson said in a Bloomberg Radio interview to be broadcast in May that he wants to raise monthly Volt sales to 3,000 or more in the coming months.

Electric cars and battery makers have suffered high-profile power failures. Fisker Automotive Inc.’s $103,000 Karma sports sedan shut down in a test by Consumer Reports magazine. A123 Systems Inc. is recalling the electric car batteries it made for Fisker and other automakers.

Mitt Romney, leading in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, calls the Obama administration’s loans to startups such as Fisker, “crony capitalism.”

Last year, consumers turned away from battery-powered cars as automakers improved the efficiency of gasoline-fueled internal combustion engines and supplies of electrified vehicles were limited by natural disasters in Asia.

Hybrids fell to 2.2 percent of the U.S. market last year, down from 2.4 percent in 2010, after peaking at 2.8 percent in 2009, LMC says. Electrified vehicles secured 3.4 percent of the U.S. light-vehicle market in this year’s first quarter, up from 2.6 percent a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

With rising prices at the pump, consumers are beginning to see value in paying as much as $5,000 extra for a hybrid, automakers say.

“Hybrid interest is peaking and it correlates very well to gas prices,” John Krafcik, chief executive officer of the North American unit of Hyundai Motor Co., said in an interview yesterday. “Our Sonata hybrid sales are fantastic.”

As much as 30 percent of Sonata sedans Hyundai is building are equipped with gasoline-electric hybrid systems, Krafcik said.

The market for all-electric vehicles such as the $35,200 Leaf and plug-in hybrids like the $39,145 Volt will remain “tough,” Krafcik said. Such vehicles also are a less- attractive option for people who live in urban areas, with limited access to garages where they can recharge their cars at night, he said.

Higher gasoline prices have provided a lift to Honda Motor Co.’s Civic hybrid sales, which more than doubled last month and are up 29 percent for the year, said Tetsuo Iwamura, head of the automaker’s North American operations.

Consumers are not ready to embrace all-electric vehicles because of concerns about how long the battery will last and how far the car can go before recharging for hours, Iwamura said.

“Electric vehicles, do we really have a market for that?” Iwamura said yesterday in an interview. “I’m not quite sure the future of battery vehicle. I’m not so clear as Mr. Ghosn.”

Nissan’s Ghosn says his company’s tests show the batteries will outlast the electric cars they’re in and he contends concerns about recharging and plug-in infrastructure are being resolved.

“This is the car of the future,” Ghosn said.

TRAVERSE CITY – Chrysler and Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne says electric vehicles are “overhyped” and that “plain-vanilla” technology is the key to meeting higher fuel efficiency standards.

At the Center for Automotive Research’s annual Management Briefing Seminars on Wednesday, Marchionne said he plans to stay on the job until at least 2015, and an initial public offering of Chrysler stock is unlikely before 2013 — later than has been speculated. His successor, Marchionne said, is likely to come from within the Fiat-Chrysler alliance, reported The Detroit News.

In a wide-ranging speech, and in comments to reporters afterward, Marchionne took generations of auto executives to task for opposing increases in federally mandated fuel efficiency standards, as well as other government-imposed requirements.

“This industry has got a very bad habit of crying wolf, and sooner or later somebody’s going to call your marker and call your bluff,” he said. Automakers, he noted, have long opposed mileage requirements, but ultimately they always complied.

Marchionne said a compromise deal between automakers and the Obama administration to boost 2017-25 fuel economy standards to 54.5 mpg — about double their current level — is “very doable.”

“Anybody who surrenders 14 years before the date and says, ‘I can’t get there’ ought not to be in business,” he said.

Even though Chrysler plans to unveil an EV Fiat 500 next year, Marchionne said the focus on electric vehicles is “overhyped.”
“It cannot be the only answer” to great gas mileage, he said.

The “plain-vanilla” technology of better engines and transmissions, he added, “will by themselves bring huge benefits.”
Environmentalists praised Marchionne’s candor.

“I welcome all truth-tellers,” said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign.

Marchionne, 59, said he hopes the Fiat-Chrysler alliance will be one of the five or six global players in the auto industry.

“It’s going to be up to the guy after me, I think — after 2015, hopefully. Maybe a year later,” he said at the event. “Chrysler will be here after me.”

Meeting with reporters later, Marchionne softened his comments: “I technically can go beyond 2015,” and will “leave later or earlier as the case may be. … I wouldn’t focus on the date. I would focus on the process.”

The new Fiat-Chrysler management team announced last week has 22 executives representing of nine nationalities. “It’s designed to be a proving ground,” Marchionne said.

The new leadership structure, he said, is intended “to ensure speed, clarity of direction and unity of purpose. When two enterprises integrate, they share everything: industrial resources and know-how, projects and targets, challenges and ambitions.”

Fiat, which owns a majority stake in Chrysler, is likely to replace some board members. “It is to be reasonably expected, without being traumatic.”

Marchionne expects 12.7 million cars and trucks to be sold in the U.S. this year, which puts his estimate on the lower side of automakers’ projections. “People are still very reluctant to make long-term commitments to hiring and to capital,” he said.

While Marchionne believes the industry is “out of the ditch,” he sees a gradual recovery in sales over the next three or four years, and doesn’t expect industry-wide sales in 2014 to be close to 15 million.

China, he said, is a looming challenge to the American automakers.

“China is the largest producer of cars in the world. They produce almost entirely for the enormous domestic market, but their future plans for the export market are significant,” Marchionne said.

“Even assuming China were to export only 10 percent of what it produces, the risk we face in our home markets is enormous. We cannot afford to be unprepared for the ascent of China, reassuring ourselves of our invincibility.”

While Chinese automakers have been promising to arrive in the U.S. for several years, Marchionne said, “They are coming. They have a right to be here.”

Fiat plans to have a plant running in China next year that can assemble 300,000 vehicles annually.

Germany’s BMW Group plans to buy the car-leasing unit of Dutch banking group ING for around $1 billion to expand its own fleet division and to support its budding electric car business.

The acquisition of ING Car Lease for 637 million euros will increase the number of car contracts under management by BMW’s Alphabet Fleet Management from 300,000, serving more than 12,000 customers, to around 540,000, BMW said Friday.

“Fleet management will also support the introduction of electric vehicles,” said Norbert van den Eijnden, chief of Alphabet.

Analysts say automakers rolling out all-electric and other high-tech cars will rely increasingly on their leasing operations, reported The Detroit News.

Most people will be reluctant to buy the early electric cars because of concerns about their residual values. “Why buy a first-generation electric car when you know the technology is likely to be obsolete in three-four years?” said auto consultant Maryann Keller of Maryann Keller & Associates in Stamford, Conn. “It’s easier to get people to make a monthly payment.”

It’s also easier for automakers with their own leasing operations to subsidize the cost of battery-powered electric vehicles. That way, they can put as many customers as they want behind the wheel and see how the cars perform, Keller said.

BMW has leased electric Mini cars and has developed a BMW-badged ActiveE electric car.

At the same time, European companies with vehicle fleets also are under pressure to curb carbon dioxide emissions.

“We currently see many automakers putting more focus on fleet management,” Deutsche Bank analyst Tim Rokossa said in a research note today.

The commercial fleet business is important in Europe, where company cars are often part of executive compensation.

“The strengthening of the fleet management business is in line with the BMW Group strategy to be the leading provider of premium products and premium services,” BMW said.

It said the deal with ING was expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Deutsche Bank noted that BMW, based in Munich, had 12.5 billion euros, or $17.5 billion, in cash from industrial operations, at the end of the first quarter. “As such BMW has in our view enough cash to easily digest this acquisition,” Rokossa said.

Toyota Motor Corp. is hinting at plans to give customers a broader, better range of hybrid and electric vehicles over the next few years. The car maker also suggests it will ramp up its in-car electronics offerings and give more authority to regional executives.

At its annual meeting with dealers held in Las Vegas, the car maker’s president Akio Toyoda talked about a renewed focus on products and said the next-generation Camry and Camry hybrid models coming for 2012 are among the vehicles on which it will rely heavily. He said the new Camry, the latest in a line of midsize sedans that have been perennial best-sellers in the U.S., is meant to “meet the changing needs of the 21st Century driver.”

Toyota says the coming Camry will have improved overall performance including ride and handling that will be better than before, reported The Wall Street Journal. It will also have a new exterior and interior design and a range of new electronic and telematic features, the car maker says.

As competition gets stronger in the midsize family-car segment Toyota has been under pressure to update the Camry. For years its only serious rival was the Honda Civic. But today there are many more cars that compete with the Camry, including the Hyundai Sonata and Kia Optima. Other rivals that have come on strong lately include Ford Motor Co., Subaru and General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet division.

Company chief Toyoda also said giving more decision-making power to subordinates on the regional level is his “most important goal.” This is significant after more than a year of major recalls and doubts about the company’s commitment to quality.

Here’s a list of additional meeting themes and highlights from Toyota:

Recovery from the disaster has far exceeded expectations. In Japan, production is expected to return to normal levels after July. In North America, eight locally-built models, including Avalon, Camry, Corolla, Highlander, Matrix, Sequoia, Sienna and Venza returned to 100 percent production in early June. The remaining four North-American built models, including Tundra, Tacoma, RAV4 and Lexus RX, will return to 100 percent beginning in September.

Prius family launch remains on track. Prius dominates the hybrid market with over 50 percent market share. With the launch of Prius family, Toyota is capitalizing on that brand strength and providing all the benefits of Prius in a variety of vehicles. Prius v, which arrives this fall, has SUV like cargo capability, nearly 60 percent more than the current Prius, but still is expected to deliver estimated EPA fuel economy ratings of 42 mpg combined. The Prius c compact, arriving in the spring of 2012, offers expressive styling in a city-friendly vehicle that we believe will be the most fuel efficient hybrid in the U.S.

Advanced technology vehicles. New, advanced vehicles arriving in 2012 include the Prius plug-in hybrid, RAV4 EV and Scion iQ EV. Toyota has committed to putting a fuel cell vehicle on the road by 2015, and is researching bio-fuels and next-generation materials to help make vehicles that will be lighter, safe and more fuel-efficient.

Investment in North America. Our new plant in Mississippi opening this fall will build 150,000 Corollas per year, create 2,000 jobs and represents Toyota’s faith in the North American market.

State-of-the-art multimedia. Toyota’s new Entune system, which will feature simple, seamless functionality and is compatible with virtually every smart phone, will debut this fall in the new Prius v and Camry.

General Motors Co. Chief Executive Officer Dan Akerson is looking to at least triple the company’s target for electric-car sales by expanding the market for the Chevrolet Volt and adding models that would share similar technology, said three people familiar with his plan, Bloomberg reported.

Akerson, who took over on Sept. 1, told his executive team in early December to find ways to sell three to four times as many electric cars as planned for 2012 by mid-decade, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private. GM has said it expects to sell 10,000 Volts in 2011 and 45,000 the following year, when capacity may reach 60,000.

Increasing Volt sales and developing other models with electric drive will spread out the cost of developing the technology across more vehicles. It also carries risk because hybrid and electric cars have tended to sell in low volume and be unprofitable, said Jim Hall, principal of 2953 Analytics Inc., a consulting firm in Birmingham, Michigan.

“That makes sense in the long term, but they have to get costs down,” Hall said. “Once the government sales incentives are gone, GM has to mature the cost of the technology to get prices down and make sure they’re not losing money.”

Akerson’s plan for more cars with electric drive underscores his strategy to differentiate GM and make it a technology leader, following an initial public offering that raised more than $20 billion in November, 16 months after the carmaker emerged from bankruptcy. Akerson, 62, has told top executives that he wants Detroit-based GM to seek new markets and prepare for higher fuel prices, according to the people.

Europe, China

The Volt went on sale this month in the U.S. at a price of $41,000. The car, which can travel as much as 50 miles (80 kilometers) using batteries, will be sold in China during the second half of 2011. GM last month began taking reservations for the electric-drive Opel Ampera, which will sell in Europe next year. The models include a gasoline engine that extends the driving range to more than 370 miles.

Dave Darovitz, a GM spokesman, said GM will look at other models for the Volt system. He declined comment on Akerson’s volume goals for the technology.

The federal government is offering consumers a $7,500 tax credit to buy the Volt, plug-in hybrids and electric cars. The credit begins to phase out after a manufacturer produces 200,000 eligible plug-in electric vehicles, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website.

GM Stock

Akerson, a former managing director of private equity firm Carlyle Group, succeeded Ed Whitacre as CEO in September and assumes the role of chairman at the end of the year. Akerson told his executive team to come back to him with a way to meet the higher sales numbers for the Volt and other electric-drive models, or with reasons why it can’t be done, one of the people familiar with the plan said.

GM rose 9 cents to $33.85 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange trading. They have gained 2.6 percent since the IPO.

GM is considering adding electric-gasoline Volt technology to several models under multiple brands, most of them larger than the Volt, including SUVs, according to the three people familiar with the plan. In April at the Beijing Motor Show, Chevrolet showed a five-passenger SUV that could drive in all- electric mode for 32 miles using the Volt’s powertrain system. That kind of vehicle is one possibility, the people said.

Larger Cars

Making larger models using the same system is difficult and may be more expensive because adding features and passenger space will make the car heavier and less aerodynamic, according to two of the people. GM stopped work on a plan hatched by now- retired Vice Chairman Bob Lutz to make a two-door Cadillac sports car called the Converj that used the Volt’s drive system, two executives with knowledge of the decision said in March.

The Volt runs using only electric drive for the first 25 miles to 50 miles. After that, a four-cylinder gasoline engine turns on and recharges the lithium-ion battery.

The EPA rated the Volt’s fuel economy at the equivalent of 93 miles per gallon in electric-only mode and 37 mpg if the car runs on gas after the battery is drained.

IRVINE, Calif. — When it comes to new-car purchases, consumers who are concerned with environmental responsibility and economic stability believe they can meet their needs with the purchase of a green car, according to Autobytel’s recent “What’s Hot Now” report.

Autobytel said in the wake of the Gulf oil spill and concerns about the environment and the economy, consumers are interested in vehicles that can contribute to a greener earth as well as lessen the impact on their pocketbook.

Fifty-seven percent of consumer surveyed revealed an interest in purchasing an alternative fuel vehicle in the next 12 months. Economics was a leading factor in the purchase of an alternative fuel vehicle with over 50 percent reporting “economics, better gas mileage”, but being “environmentally responsible” and “reducing dependence on foreign oil” were two other reasons cited by 39 percent of the respondents.

Autobytel’s report reveals strong green vehicle purchasing trends – and more susceptibility to environmental concerns – in the next generation of car buyers. One out of four respondents under 25 years of age report they are definitely considering purchasing an alternative fuel or high mpg vehicle in the next 12 months. Over half of those surveyed said that environmental factors impacted their likelihood to buy a green vehicle.

“Consumers are interested in being fiscally and environmentally responsible when considering their next vehicle purchase,” said Jeff Coats, president and CEO, Autobytel. “Our latest ‘What’s Hot Now’ report reveals good news for the makers of alternative energy and high mpg vehicles.”

Over 2,000 consumers responded to Autobytel’s survey in July. Key results of the study revealed the following:

Green Potential High in Next 12 Months, Two to Five Years

• Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they are likely to consider purchasing a green (electric, hybrid, high mpg) vehicle in the next 12 months. Nine percent said “definitely” considering, 17 percent said “seriously” considering and 31 percent said “maybe.”
• A total of 75 percent of respondents said they either “intend” (19 percent) or “might consider” (56 percent) purchasing an alternative fuel vehicle in the next two to five years.

Economy Impacts Buying Choices

• “Economics, better gas mileage” is the No. 1 reason cited by respondents for purchasing a green vehicle (51 percent).
• Gas prices impact vehicle purchase choices for 80 percent of the respondents.
• $3.50 a gallon is the gas pump price point at which most respondents (34 percent) would be more likely to purchase an alternative fuel vehicle.

Under 25s: Generation Green

• Seventy-three percent of respondents under the age of 25 are actively considering a green vehicle purchase within the next 12 months, compared to 56 percent of those in the over-25 demographic.
• Environmental factors (such as pollution levels and global warming) impact their likelihood to purchase a green vehicle (53 percent), compared to the over-25 demographic (44 percent).
• Over 80 percent “intend to purchase” or “might consider buying” a green vehicle in the next two to five years, compared to 75 percent in the over-25 demographic.

Hybrid Still Tops

• Gas/electric hybrid is the fuel-efficient technology most likely to be considered (38 percent), while small, high MPG gas vehicles are second (14 percent) and electric plug-ins and fuel cells come in at 11 percent and 9 percent, respectively.