Look at a U.S. map for hybrid car sales hot spots and you’ll see they’re all the rage in California, the Pacific Northwest and some pockets of the East Coast.
Peer a little closer, and you’ll find just one spot in the rest of the country where hybrids are big sellers: Madison, Wis.
While the number of hybrids sold compared with all cars remains small, it’s growing fast. Between 2011 and 2012, hybrids’ share of new-vehicle sales nationally rose from 2.4% to 3.4%, according to registration data analyzed by Edmunds.com.
Places like Madison lead the charge.
In Madison, hybrids accounted for 4.2% of new-vehicle sales last year. And so far this year, hybrids are even more popular, accounting for 4.7% of registrations.
To be sure, Wisconsin’s capital city has some of the key hallmarks of a hybrid hub — university town, progressive tradition.
In college towns, buyers are “a lot more inclined to try hybrid technologies,” said Jeremy Acevedo, automotive analyst at Edmunds.com.
Among top hybrid cities, other college towns that appear on the list include Charlottesville, Va., Eugene, Ore., and Gainesville, Fla.