Hybrid Car Review

A few months ago, I put together a list of the 82 most fuel efficient cars in 2008 according to the EPA ratings. It's a very simple list, just an inventory of all vehicles getting a combined 25 mpg or more.

A recent story at autonews talks about a few small cars and how sales are skyrocketing in the small car segment. They concentrated on the subcompacts: Fit, Yaris, Aveo, Rio, and Cooper, all of which showed double digit (percentage) growth.

But that left me wondering about all the other fuel efficient cars out there, including hybrids of course. So, I gathered together the list of fuel efficient vehicles and then found their sales numbers and saw something amazing. Even as the overall car sales dropped 2.3%, the 'fuel efficient segment' grew over 15%.

Make	Model	Jan-08		Jan-07						% Change
Audi	TT	326		10						3160%
Chevrolet	Aveo	5,314		3,789						40%
Chevrolet	Cobalt	17,310		13,023						33%
Chevrolet	Malibu	14,541		9,209						58%
Dodge	Caliber	10,885		8,672						26%
Ford	Escape/Mariner Hybrid	1,474		1,238						19%
Ford	Focus	11,600		8,035						44%
Honda	Civic	19,248		16,595						16%
Honda	Civic Hybrid	1,745		1,783						-2%
Honda	Fit	4,480		2,036						120%
Hyundai	Accent	2,941		2,437						21%
Hyundai	Elantra	5,615		6,361						-12%
Kia	Rio	2,709		1,624						67%
Kia	Spectra	4,858		4,273						14%
Mazda	Mazda3	6,579		7,643						-14%
MINI	Cooper	2,460		2,050						20%
Nissan	Altima	21,162		24,394						-13%
Nissan	Altima Hybrid	473		0						-
Nissan	Sentra	7,170		7,878						-9%
Nissan	Versa	5,609		4,497						25%
Pontiac	G5/Pursuit	1,970		1,312						50%
Pontiac	Vibe	2,338		2,130						10%
Scion	xD	1,597		0						-
Suzuki	SX4/Aerio	1,966		1,007						95%
Toyota	Camry Hybrid	3,750		2,801						34%
Toyota	Corolla/Matrix	20,736		25,519						-19%
Toyota	Highlander Hybrid	2,143		1,810						18%
Toyota	Prius	11,379		8,299						37%
Toyota	Yaris	7,666		5,870						31%
Total		200,044		174,295						15%

Obviously, not all of the vehicles in my list were up. I've highlighted those that were down in red, including the Civic Hybrid, Elantra, Mazda 3, Altima, Sentra, and Corolla/Matrix.

But the rest were up, some by quite remarkable numbers. The Honda Fit, for instance, jumps out at you with 120% increase in sales. The Chevy Malibu saw a huge gain with a new release and a huge advertising push and the Ford Focus is also benefiting from the high cost of gas.

Want more? Check out the latest hybrid cars sales from January, 2008.

Let me know what you think about these numbers in the comments below.