Peugeot and Mitsubishi Are Not Working Together to Develop Hybrids

Peugeot Citroen has denied rumors they were working with Mitsubishi Motors to develop hybrid cars.

"We deny the information. We are working well with Mitsubishi on electric vehicles," a PSA Peugeot Citroen spokesman told Reuters. He added "we have our own research into plug-in hybrids."

Peugeot has been working with Bosch to build a hybrid diesel and is expected sometime in 2011.

Hybrid Car Sales, June 2009

As I mentioned a week and a half ago, sales were up this month for hybrids, for the first time since April, 2008.  Spurred by the new Fusion and Milan Hybrids, along with the new generation Prius, hybrid car sales increased 4.5% from last year.  Not a huge gain, but compared to the overall market, a huge difference.

Cumulative sales for the year are still down 33% from last year.

Prius sales were up 10.5% from last year as the new model Prius started arriving at dealerships.  The all new Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan Hybrids had a strong start with 2,244 units sold in June.  Honda also had strong sales of the new Insight with 2,079 units sold.

Overall, Ford and Honda took 14.4% of the hybrid market each, while Toyota's share dropped to 66%.  Last year, their share was 73.2%, which may indicate a distinct shift in the consumers awareness of other hybrids.  Not that Toyota is going anywhere, since over half of all hybrids sold were once again a Prius.

But it's not all good news, as every other hybrid model except for the Prius was down from a year ago.  If it wasn't for the new models being sold, hybrid car sales would still be down by 14%.  It's important to keep in mind how strong sales still were in June 2008.  High gas prices had the Prius down to a 4 day turn around on dealerships.  But it turns out the drop in June, 2008 was an early indicator of the troubles to come as the economy started to wilt.  People may have been willing to line up for the Prius, but other models were beginning to suffer.

Monthly Sales		June 2008		June 2009		% Change
Make	Model	N	%	N	%
Chrysler	Aspen/Durango	0	0.0	0	0	0
Ford	Escape/Mariner	1,912	7.9	1,405	5.5	-26.5
Ford	Fusion/Milan	0	0.0	2,244	8.8	0.0
GM	Escalade	0	0.0	155	0.6	0.0
GM	Silverado/Sierra	0	0.0	123	0.5	0.0
GM	Tahoe/Yukon	547	2.2	392	1.5	-28.3
Honda	Accord	7	0.0	0	0.0	-100.0
Honda	Civic	2,710	11.1	1,583	6.2	-41.6
Honda	Insight	0	0.0	2,079	8.2	0.0
Nissan	Altima	1,333	5.5	666	2.6	-50.0
Toyota	Camry	3,054	12.6	2,093	8.2	-31.5
Toyota	GS 450h	73	0.3	27	0.1	-63.0
Toyota	Highlander	1,511	6.2	1,098	4.3	-27.3
Toyota	LS600hL	73	0.3	31	0.1	-57.5
Toyota	Prius	11,765	48.4	12,998	51.1	10.5
Toyota	RX 400h	1,330	5.5	527	2.1	-60.4
Total		24,315		25,421		4.5
Cumulative Sales		Cumulative 2008		Cumulative 2009		% Change
Make	Model	N	%	N	%
Chrysler	Aspen/Durango	0	0	0	0.0	0.0
Ford	Escape/Mariner	11,422	6.3	7,891	6.5	-30.9
Ford	Fusion/Milan	0	0.0	5,939	4.9	0.0
GM	Escalade	0	0.0	840	0.7	0.0
GM	Silverado/Sierra	0	0.0	470	0.4	0.0
GM	Tahoe/Yukon	1,136	0.6	2,711	2.2	138.6
Honda	Accord	191	0.1	1	0.0	-99.5
Honda	Civic	19,032	10.4	12,328	10.1	-35.2
Honda	Insight	0	0.0	7,524	6.2	0.0
Nissan	Altima	5,575	3.1	3,174	2.6	-43.1
Toyota	Camry	30,532	16.7	13,007	10.6	-57.4
Toyota	GS 450h	459	0.3	208	0.2	-54.7
Toyota	Highlander	13,053	7.2	6,359	5.2	-51.3
Toyota	LS600hL	637	0.3	157	0.1	-75.4
Toyota	Prius	91,442	50.1	55,751	45.6	-39.0
Toyota	RX 400h	9,038	5.0	5,798	4.7	-35.8
Total		182,517		122,158		-33.1

Ford and Honda have shown that Toyota does not have to be the only hybrid maker.  It remains to be seen if 'new GM' will break through with their two-mode hybrids.  More than likely, we'll just have to wait and see what happens with the Volt at the end of 2010.  And we're still waiting on Nissan to show up with a hybrid of their own.

Related:
Hybrid Car Sales, May 2009
Hybrid Car Sales, June 2008

Hybrid Car Sales Will be Up for June

I don't have all the data I need to make my normal monthly report on hybrid car sales, but so far, the numbers look good. With just the reported values from Honda, Toyota and Ford, hybrid car sales so far are at 24,055. Total hybrid car sales in June, 2008 were 24,315 units sold. 

So, unless Nissan and GM sales come in under 260 units, hybrid car sales will be up for June, the first time they have been positive since April, 2008.

The numbers so far:

	June, 2008	June, 2009	% Change
Ford	1,912	3,649	91%
GM	547	-	-
Honda	2,717	3,662	35%
Nissan	1,333	-	-
Toyota	17,806	16,744	-6%
Total	24,315	24,055	-1%

Prius sales were up 10% from last year, but most of the increase for 2009 comes from new models (Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan, and Honda Insight) being sold.

Hybrids and Highly Popular Models

This is a bit of a free thinking post, so forgive me if I ramble.

Kelley Blue Book released the 'most researched vehicles' for the first half of 2009 and there aren't many surprises.
1. Honda Accord
2. Honda Civic
3. Toyota Camry
4. Honda CR-V
5. Toyota Corolla
6. Toyota Highlander
7. Nissan Altima
8. Toyota RAV4
9. Toyota Prius
10. Ford Mustang
11. Honda Pilot
12. MAZDA3
13. Honda Odyssey
14. Ford Fusion
15. Ford Escape
16. Chevrolet Camaro
17. Volkswagen Jetta
18. Toyota Sienna
19. Chevrolet Malibu
20. Lexus RX350

What I found interesting is how many of the vehicles have hybrid models. Eight of the 20 models listed have (or just are) hybrids. The Accord, Civic, Camry, Highlander, Altima, Prius, Fusion, Escape, and Malibu all have hybrid engines.

To me that indicates two things.
1) People in first half of 2009 are still very interested in fuel economy and
2) automakers are making hybrids out of already popular models.

This is something I've noticed before, but I thought it would make a good discussion for today. Part of the reason (I believe) automakers pick high production models to insert hybrid engines into is to draw attention to the original model, making them more competitive.

Since one company did it, the others feel like they have to follow suit. Once Honda and Toyota picked the Camry, Civic and Accord; Nissan, Ford and GM had to follow suit with the Altima, Fusion and Malibu.

After all, they want to make sure the word gets out they are building hybrids. Given the profit margin on the first generation of hybrids (i.e. a loss), you might expect them to pick low production models. That way they would be able to justify not building too many of them (and losing money on each of them). That's how important the PR of hybrid technology is to the car companies.

As an aside, it's the initial research cost they have to overcome. Ford, Toyota and Honda are making money on their hybrid cars at this point. Since they were in the game first, they have been selling hybrids long enough to make a profit. GM decided to build cheaper hybrids, so it's possible they could have made money on their mild systems.

In order to keep the PR up, while minimizing losses, the car companies have, in the past, followed several different strategies. Ford and Nissan limited production of their hybrids as much as they can. And Nissan didn't develop their own hybrid engine, they just buy them from Toyota.

GM made a cheaper hybrid and talked as much as they could about it. Then they built a really expensive version or their SUVs and trucks. Unfortunately for them, the SUV and truck market have taken a big hit over the past couple of years. Plus, fuel efficient mavens don't tend to buy SUVs and trucks.

But Toyota and Honda decided they had to go for it, and spent the money to create the best hybrids they could. Honda has experimented with several different formulas (performance hybrid - Accord, fuel efficient hybrid - Civic, cheaper hybrid - Insight, most fuel efficient two-seater - original Insight). Toyota decided to stick with their winning strategy (Prius).

And so it's these two companies that have shown the way. Honda has shown what doesn't work more than what does work so far. But both have continued their research and cut costs in each successive generation of hybrid engines. It was the harder way to do it, but they have done it.

And now the others are playing catch up. GM has decided to try and 'leap-frog' the others with the development of the Volt. Ford has finally developed the Fusion and Milan hybrids (although they remain cautious and continue to limit production). Nissan is still behind, but hopes to have their own hybrid system soon.