Hybrid Car Review

Hybrid car sales were up 24.1%, for a total of 22,625 units sold from last December, despite sluggish hybrid sales from Honda. Toyota hybrid car sales were up 33.5%, Ford gained 26.9%, while Honda fell 15.7% from December 2005. I still can't find a reference for the Saturn Vue Greenline, so all comparisons here exclude GM hybrids out of necessity.

The Toyota Prius led the way, selling 9,291 units, an increase of 2.9% from last December. Coming in second was the Toyota Camry Hybrid, with 4,005 units sold (no comparison can be made for the Camry hybrid since it went on sale in April, 2006). Toyota also had the fourth most popular hybrid, the Toyota Highlander Hybrid, which sold 2,354 units, an increase of 7.1%.

Lexus had the fifth most popular hybrid, selling 1,981 units of its RX 400h, a decrease of 8.8% from last December. The Lexus GS 450h sold 252 units (sales beginning in April, so no comparison can be made).

All together, Toyota sold 17,883 units, or 79% of all hybrids sold in the US in December 2006 carried the Toyota or Lexus brand. The Prius accounted for 41.1% of all hybrids sold. It's no wonder then that Honda is looking to come out with a new hybrid-only vehicle (all other hybrids being sold have conventional gas only engines counterparts, i.e. the Toyota Camry and the Toyota Camry Hybrid) and why Toyota is looking to repeat its success with another hybrid-only car.

Honda hybrid sales suffered in December, dropping to 2,774 units sold for a decrease of 15.7%. The Honda Accord hybrid, built for performance rather than fuel economy, has suffered the most, dropping 49.6% to 363 units sold. The Honda Civic Hybrid had strong sales of 2,408 units, making it the third most popular hybrid in December. But that was still a 4.7% decrease from last December. The Insight has been discontinued and sold only 3 units, for a decrease of 92.9%.

Honda sold 12.3% of the hybrids in the US for the month of December.

Ford sold 1,968 units of its Ford Escape Hybrid and its luxury twin, the Mercury Mariner Hybrid for an increase of 26.9% from last December. This was 8.7% of the hybrids sold in the US.

Hybrid SUV sales (Toyota Highlander, Ford Escape and the Lexus RX 400h) increased 6.5%, while Hybrid car sales increased 32.5%. The biggest difference in cars is the addition of the Toyota Camry Hybrid to the mix.

One note: December 2005 had 27 selling days, while December of 2006 had 26 selling days. I did not make any corrections for this difference, but you should keep it in mind.

November 2006 Hybrid Car Sales