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Growth Fuels Hybrid Leasing

CINCINNATI, May 9, 2008 -- Resulting from both rising fuel prices andenvironmental consciousness, hybrid vehicle registrations were up in 2007.According to R.L. Polk & Co. figures recently released, there was anincrease of 38 percent in the hybrid segment when compared to 2006, meaning350,289 new hybrids hit the road last year. Swapalease.com is noticing asimilar trend when it comes to hybrid leasing.

As hybrid vehicles become more mainstream, the segment will see similartraditional financing and lease penetration rates to those of the marketoverall. Considering hybrid vehicle sales made up only 2.2 percent of thetotal automotive market in 2007, it is premature to extrapolate an industryrecognized lease penetration rate of 24 percent. As overall leasepenetration and interest increases, Swapalease anticipates that leasing ofhybrid vehicles will grow as well. Additionally, Swapalease.com is seeinga greater number of hybrid vehicle listings and ultimately more hybridlease transfers since the beginning of 2008.

"When Hybrids first came on the market, Automotive Lease Guide (ALG) hadnot set residual values due to the lack of available data on the futurevalues. Now they have established that hybrids are holding their values ata higher percentage than non-hybrids and national lease funders arecomfortable writing competitive leases. Increased consumer demand coupledwith the lower payments has caused a surge in the market that we seecontinuing," said Jerry Thompson, Principal of autoleaseDIRECT.com.

This combination of consumer interest, industry acceptance, and theeconomic climate will result in even more hybrid leasing in the future.Swapalease.com not only welcomes this trend, but also is working to stay infront as evidenced by their recently added "Green" search category whichlists all hybrid vehicles available for lease transfer on their website.

Swapalease.com is the world"s largest automotive lease marketplace andthe pioneer of facilitating lease transfers online as evidenced by thecompany"s patented processes. Conceptualized in 1997 it has evolved into aleading automotive consumer online destination servicing all aspects of theautomotive leasing lifecycle including education, research, pricing,acquisition and lease transfer.