There are a number of big celebrities who have been spotted driving hybrid cars. Some of these top celebrities include the likes of Tom Hank, Sting, Tim Robbins, Meryl Streep, Cameron Diaz, Ed Beasley and Leonardo DeCaprio. However, with the popularity of hybrid cars increasing by the day, so are the numbers of hybrid car drivers. We look into recent research by a group of social scientists that seeks to categorize some of the common characteristics that these drivers have.

Hybrid car drivers have a relatively higher income compared to the usual car buyer. On average, the incomes of a majority of hybrid car drivers are about $100,000 a year compared to $85,000 earned by most of the average buyers. A study by Scarborough Research shows that about 42% of hybrid car drivers have an annual income of more than $100,000.

Hybrid car owners are often a few years older than the average car buyer is. These drivers have an average age of about 50, compared to the average age of 40 for owners of conventional gasoline powered vehicles. Research conducted by J.D. Power shows that only 2% of hybrid car owners are below the age of 24. Twenty-nine percent are between the ages of 45 and 54, and 33% of these drivers are over the age of 55.

Research also shows that hybrid car owners have a relatively higher level of education when compared to the rest of the car owners. The researchers at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute also showed most hybrid car drivers expected the prices of fuel to increase at a rate faster than the number of people in the market. This shows how pessimistic this group of people is concerning the cost of fuel compared to other car owners in the market.

The Scarborough research made a lifestyle study on over 110,000 hybrid car owners in an effort to establish the relationship between their consumer behavior and political patterns. According to this research, the following are the major shared behavior characteristics of hybrid car owners:

• They love skiing, hiking, and yoga more
• About 14% of these identified themselves as Republicans, 38% were Democrats while 34% identified themselves as Independent.
• This group of people consumes more decaffeinated coffee organic food, and yogurt compared to most of the public.
• These owners have shown to have better than average tech savvy skills. More than 75% of them regularly use email. Over a third of them use their mobile phone to send text messages and take photographs. Their online traffic seems to be moving towards sites that offer news and information.