Hybrid Vehicle Advocacy Award apparently unfamiliar with hybrids

It seems that in Japan you can win the "Hybrid Vehicle Advocacy Award" without really knowing a lot about hybrids. Take the case of Dave Spector, a talk show host in Japan, who received the award October 25 at the 22nd Electric Vehicle Symposium. The award is given to "outstanding individuals and organizations whose support has a positive impact on Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle development". That's all fine and good, but it seems Spector hasn't familiarized himself with hybrids that well before accepting the award. At the Symposium, Spector took some test drives in electric, hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles. Then, in his acceptance speech, he said:
"It is an honor to receive this award. As an automobile enthusiast, I was thrilled to drive some of these new hybrid cars. I was expecting them to drive like golf carts! I was totally surprised to discover that the new electric motors have more power and accelerated faster than combustion cars. I plan to let the world know that not only is driving a hybrid the right thing to do, it is also a lot more fun."

Okaaaaay. Sounds like someone was given the award in so his support will soon have a "positive impact on Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle development", not for anything he'd done in the past.

The Hybrid Vehicle Advocacy Award is given out by the Hybrid Consortium, the Japan Automobile Research Institute (JARI), and the Electric Vehicle Symposium (EVS-22).

[Source: The Auto Channel]