High gas prices — now at about $4 a gallon — are triggering a surge in hybrid-car sales in the US. This from the LA Times:

Although hybrid cars account for only about 3% of U.S. car sales, their share is growing rapidly. Sales of hybrid cars surged 25% during the first four months of this year compared with the same period last year. And the pace accelerated last month, when sales jumped 58%. That outpaced the overall April sales gain of 18% for small fuel-efficient cars and comes as total new-vehicle sales are slumping.

The reason is simple. The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gas topped $4 a gallon in California for the first time Thursday, according to AAA. That’s up 16% from a year earlier, and many analysts expect pump prices to go higher as the summer driving season kicks off over the Memorial Day weekend.

“The fact is that ever-rising energy costs will alter American driving and dietary habits,” says Dave Gonigam in The Daily Reckoning.

“Seven-dollar (or $12, now that Robert Hirsch of Hirsch Report fame has repeated Charlie Maxwell’s $12 forecast on CNBC) will make the 40-mile one-way commute unsustainable. And to some degree, we already see this reflected on a nationwide map of foreclosures, county-by-county, as put out by RealtyTrac.”