Hybrid Car Review

As we hit the six month mark, Toyota hybrid car sales have once again increased remarkably from last year. Overall, hybrid cars sales are up 48.8% to 34,300 units sold in the month of June. Through the month of June, hybrid car sales are up 55.5% over last years first six months for a total of 181,972 units sold.

There are three main stories to tell this month. First, hybrid sales trends are way up in 2007. Much of that may be attributed to high gas prices and aggressive sales from Toyota. The second is how much better Toyota is doing selling hybrid cars compared to everyone else. And the third is Honda is about to crossover the 60,000 limit on the federal tax credit.

Toyota Hybrid Car Sales
Toyota sold 27,382 hybrid cars in the month of June. That brings their six month total up to 146,536 hybrids since January. Of those, 94,503 were Prius.

For the month of June, Toyota sold 17,756 Prius, and increase of 83.1% from last year. Highlander Hybrid sales were down 11.2% to 2,403 units sold. Camry Hybrid sales, however, were up 29.6% for 5,530 units sold. For the first six months of 2007, Prius sales are up 99.6% from last year. But, Highlander Hybrid sales are down 22.7%. No comparison is possible for the Camry since it came out in April, 2006.

Lexus sales were mixed. GS450h sales were down to 131 units sold, a drop of 43.3%. But RX 400h sales were up 31.3% from last June, with 1,562 units sold. For the first half of the year RX 400h sales are down 29.1%. The GS 450h came out in April of 2006, so no comparison is made.

Honda Hybrid Car Sales
Honda sales were up for the Civic Hybrid 24.8% in the month of June with 3,246 sales. Accord Hybrid sales continue to slump, dropping 13.6% to 342 units sold. The Accord Hybrid is set to be retired for low sales. That brings Honda Hybrid sales to 3,588 units sold in the month of June and to 19,188 units sold through 2007.

Honda will cross the 60,000 units sold next month which will send Honda hybrid buyers into the federal tax credit on hybrid cars phaseout period next year.

Ford Hybrid Car Sales
Ford / Mercury sold 2,526 Escape Hybrids and Mariner Hybrids combined in the month of June. That is an increase of 34.1% over last years totals. For the first six months of 2007, Ford has sold 13,472 units. That's an increase of 12.3% from last year.

Nissan Hybrid Car Sales
Nissan, with their limited release of the Altima Hybrid sold 804 units. The Altima Hybrid is sold in only eight states in the US.

GM Hybrid Car Sales
I don't keep track of hybrid car sales from GM for two reasons. One, they are mild hybrids until the dual mode hybrid system comes out later this year. That makes them hard to qualify as hybrids in my mind. And two, GM doesn't break out hybrid car sales like the other automakers do. Therefore, all totals and percentages shown above exclude GM hybrid car sales.

Hybrid Car Sales, Trends
The question is, where do hybrid car sales stand in the first six months of sales? According to the following table, they're accelerating at a rapid pace. The column labeled 2006 shows total sales over the 12 months of 2006. The column labeled 2007 shows the cumulative sales through the first six months. The last column shows the percentage difference. For example, in 2006 there were 106,971 Prius sold. Through June 2006, Toyota has sold 94,503, which means they are 88% of the way to matching their total 2007 sales. Of course, the retired Insight and the soon to be retired Accord hybrid show a different trend altogether.