With gas prices hitting a high this year you’d think Bermudians would be embracing hybrid cars, which can get more than 50 miles per gallon — meaning you may only need to fill up once every six weeks.But Bermuda Motors said that despite the big savings at the pump, the Toyota Prius — while a hot seller in the US — is not selling as well as hoped for here.Bermuda Motors has had the 2012 Prius C in stock since May, but has sold only one to date.Asked why, Bermuda Motors General Manager Michael Butler said he felt: “They have been slow to catch on because of the new technology. It takes a while to educate the general public who are used to one form of transport to consider another. We have not really concentrated yet on the cost savings in gasoline consumed concentrating more on the eco aspects, which is something we are about to change.”Other auto dealers including HWP do not have any hybrids in stock yet because cars such as the Honda Insight and fully electric Nissan Leaf have not been released yet to the Bermuda market by the manufacturers. Another make of electric car is being sold by Island E-Car.Bermuda Motors has eight of the futuristic looking gas and electric powered Toyota Prius Cs in stock in white, silver and orange, sporting leather interiors, a cool digital dash displaying your speed and a USB port and iPod connection. The C model is smaller than the original Prius and has a TCD ‘E’ class fee of $945.Dozens have expressed interest, and taken the Prius hatchback — with its almost silent engine — for a test drive, but for whatever reason, have not bought one, the dealer said.This — despite the fact it‘s more affordable than you may think.At $39,000, the Prius in Bermuda is competitively priced given the lower duty on the eco-friendly car. It sells for around $20,000 to $33,000 in the US.“The Prius is such a good deal here, because the duty structure for hybrids is a lot less than a normal gasoline engine car,” Mr Butler said.“The duty is only 35 percent whereas a normal gasoline engine car would be 75 percent on the first $10,000 and 150 percent on anything above. That means that in the UK or USA you would have to pay much more for a hybrid vehicle than a normal gasoline engine car.“The cost of the Prius C here is exactly the same as a 1.3 Toyota Yaris so as soon as you drive the vehicle out of the showroom you are saving money. The estimated mpg would be about 58mpg compared to 35mpg for similar sized car.”He added “You’ll immediately start saving money on lower fuel and maintenance costs. You don’t even need to plug the Prius in — just driving it generates battery power!”Gas locally now costs a painful $2.24 a litre at the pump, or over $8 a gallon.HWP senior vice president of auto sales, Tony Martin, said of the companies it represents, none have released a hybrid or electric car to the Bermuda market yet.“We have been in talks with Nissan and Government, and right now we are still in the negotiating stage in order for Nissan to release the Leaf to our market,” Mr Martin said.He said Nissan wants commitments from Bermuda on meeting conditions such as infrastructure and charging stations, though the plug-in Leaf could be charged at home and can go 75 miles before needing recharging. He added, the Leaf was priced around $40,000, though for electric cars there is zero percent import duty.Island E-Car, owned by Dennis Lister, Lloyd Telford and David Greene, sells a custom-built electric vehicle for Bermuda’s roads.It can reach speeds of 60mph and costs $24,000, with a number of standard features including air conditioning, heater, power steering, electric front windows and key entry.It takes six to eight hours to recharge when plugged into a 110-volt outlet or under four hours with a 220-volt quick charger, with a three to four-year battery life (an average of 30 miles per day) and a replacement battery costing approximately $1,800.We could not reach Island E-Car for comment on their sales.The Prius has been sold in the US since 2000. The total number of hybrid vehicle sales (including the Prius and others) has now reached 4 million globally. Toyota said sales of the Prius hybrid more than doubled, to 21,111 in August.Reviewers have given it high marks, especially for its high miles-per-gallon number that many want to see when getting a new vehicle nowadays.As one reviewer noted: “You have a tank of roughly 10 gallons, so that means at least 500 miles before you need to fill your vehicle … maybe even closer to 600. That’s very impressive and the result of a great technological system that’s in place in this vehicle.”By comparison, many of the older cars people are driving now on the roads get half that, or even less.So potentially you can spend half or even one third as much money on gas than you currently spend.The Prius uses an electric motor in say, the overtaking stage, or acceleration. Then, the gas comes in once you’re already have momentum. So sometimes the vehicle is using one or the other, but other times it using both.“If you drive a lot or miles each year, or even a moderate amount, that’s a large amount of money saved per year, and the Prius is atop all its competitors in fuel economy,” the Ohio Morning Journal reviewer said.“Some newer vehicles coming later this year in the gas-electric hybrid segment from other automakers, including Ford, will be very close mpg competitors of the Prius, but for now the Prius is the king.”One of the early concerns about hybrid cars was the cost of battery replacement but the reviewer said that’s not the case with newer Prius models, as the battery should last the life of the vehicle.On the interior, the reviewer wrote: “When I first sat down in the Prius, I felt like I was in a spaceship — no exaggeration. The seat is further back from your dashboard, which has a holographic look to it and is more deeply embedded in the front of the car.“You can use controls on the steering wheel to scroll through information on the screen about your vehicle, including an ongoing tally of what your current mpg is. This is nice because you can see what behaviours are giving you better mpg and improve your fuel economy by applying what you’ve learned from this information.”