Oregon continues rewarding people who buy hybrid cars. The state Department of Energy has announced that the 2005 Ford Escape will qualify for tax credits. Tax credits already apply to the 2004 Toyota Prius, Honda Civic and Honda Insight, and state DOE officials expect that the 2005 models of those cars will also qualify. [ more ] I wanted to point out one key paragraph from the article above. Demand for Hybrid automobiles is soaring. In 2003, 509 people took advantage of the tax credit, said Justin Klure, a policy analyst with the Department of Energy. So far this year, 400 people have applied for the credits, he said. He doesn’t expect that number to grow much in the next few months because current buyers are finding at least a six-month waiting period when they go in to buy a hybrid. (Ed.—emphasis added.)
