It is no surprise that a look at the top-10 vehicles consumers shopped in May were dominated by vehicles offering hybrids or better fuel efficiency when you consider gas prices reached an all-time high of $3.19/gallon in May. Out of the top-10 vehicles shopped, six of them offer hybrid models.

If May shopper data tells us anything, it appears that consumers shopping hybrid models strongly relates to gas prices. This led me to the question; Is there a particular price that pushes consumers over the edge? Comparing gas prices to shopper counts of vehicles that offer hybrids, it looks like the magic number is any price greater than $3.00/gallon.

Last July, gas prices reached a 2006 peak of $3.03/gallon and this May gas prices climbed to an all-time high of $3.19/gallon. We found that the largest month-over-month increase in shopper counts among the six vehicles that offer hybrid models also occured in (you guessed it) the same months, July 2006 and May 2007.

Outside of people shopping, is there anywhere else we can look to see if consumers are paying more attention to gas prices once they hit $3.00/gallon? During 2007, the last time the national average was below $3.00/gallon was the week beginning April 23rd. Starting on April 16th we find that velocity, a metric used to analyze the relative growth of a domain over a particular timeframe, for both GasBuddy.com and the US Department of Energy’s website, FuelEconomy.gov, increased substantially. The growth for both of the sites follows the same trend as gas prices did over the period; velocity peaked on May 25th concurrent with gas prices peaking at $3.26/gallon the same week. Interestingly, at its peak GasBuddy.com’s velocity was five times that of FuelEconomy.gov. This would lead me to believe that consumers are probably looking to first locate the cheapest gas in town, and then, when they realize that cheap is a relative term, look for a fuel efficient vehicle!

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