Why Hybrids Are Such A Hard Sell  Given all the buzz about
hybrids, not to mention the greening of the citizenry, you'd
think they would be easy to sell. They're not. After growing
nicely through much of 2006, hybrid sales began to slow early
this year. The gasoline-electric vehicles now make up 1.8% of
all vehicle sales, says, down from a peak of 2.1% in October.
One major reason is that hybrids typically cost $3,000-plus more
than conventional cars. As a result, automakers in recent weeks
have been slashing prices. Less than a year ago, Toyota dealers
got full price for the Prius. Now you can immediately lease one
for a slim $219 a month. Ford Motor Co. (F) is also cutting the
price of the latest version of its Escape hybrid. In fact, in
February, carmakers spent an average of $1,500 on incentives per
hybrid, says Edmunds--triple what they laid out in January.  The
discounting helped the likes of Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) and Ford
post decent sales in February, but, as the Big Three know all
too well, ladlin