Hybrid Car Review

Hybrid car sales were down once again in September. The limitation on Prius sales has put a damper that the new sales of GM hybrids can not make up for, even if the other car makers were up, which they are not.

September was a miserable month all around for car sales in general, so it should not come as a surprise that hybrid car sales were pulled down. Overall, 19,889 hybrid cars were sold in September, 2008, a decline of 13 percent from last year. That's better than the overall decline in car sales. GM was only down by 16% in their overall car sales and they were looked on with envy the other car companies.

Toyota hybrid car sales were down again. The limitation on Prius sales has put a real damper on the hybrid car market. Prius sales were down 13%, and since one out of every two hybrids sold is a Prius, where Toyota goes, so goes the market. But Toyota had the one car that showed an increase, and that was the Toyota Highlander Hybrid, which had an increase of 377%. Unfortunately, that's not a real indicator of growth, so much as a show of how limited the sales were last September as Toyota switched over.

Honda was only down 3% with the Civic Hybrid, while Ford saw a 40% drop. Nissan chipped in with a 38% drop in Altima Hybrid sales. GM showed a nice increase in their hybrid sales from previous months, but haven't reached the one year mark yet for comparison purposes.  But, Tahoe/Yukon hybrid sales did surpass the other hybrid SUVs.  That may be an unfair comparison, since I group the Tahoe and Yukon together, but it's still a good indicator of how things are improving for GM's hybrids.

Until a new hybrid car like the new Insight comes along, or Toyota makes more Prius available, it seems that hybrid car sales will continue to stall. Toyota has no intention of increasing production of the Prius right now though.  I recently saw a report that Toyota expects to sell 170,000 Prius this year.  Which means we should see very similar numbers over the  next three months. They're getting ready for a new generation of Prius to come along.

Make	Model	Sep-07	Sep-08	% Change
Honda	Accord	229	0	-100%
Honda	Civic	2,092	2,020	-3%
Honda	Insight	0	0	-
Toyota	Prius	12,494	10,873	-13%
Toyota	Highlander	193	921	377%
Toyota	Camry	4,196	2,785	-34%
Toyota	GS 450h	72	29	-60%
Toyota	RX 400h	979	744	-24%
Toyota	LS600hL	196	47	-76%
Ford	Escape/Mariner	1,652	990	-40%
Nissan	Altima	756	470	-38%
GM	Yukon/Tahoe	0	1,010	-
GM	Escalade	0	91	-
Total		22,859	19,889	-13%

Make	Model	Cumulative, 2007	Cumulative, 2008	% Change
Honda	Accord	2,808	196	-93%
Honda	Civic	23,828	27,597	16%
Honda	Insight	3	0	-100%
Toyota	Prius	137,114	130,563	-5%
Toyota	Highlander	16,088	16,572	3%
Toyota	Camry	40,879	39,418	-4%
Toyota	GS 450h	1,605	563	-65%
Toyota	RX 400h	12,193	12,498	3%
Toyota	LS600hL	463	838	81%
Ford	Escape/Mariner	18,535	15,015	-19%
Nissan	Altima	5,306	7,202	36%
GM	Yukon/Tahoe	0	3,294	-
GM	Escalade	0	92	-
Total		258,822	253,756	-2%

And so I stand by my prediction from earlier this year.  Hybrid car sales will not increase this year.  In fact, for the first time, we might see a slight decrease.  But that will not hold for long.  The oncoming Honda Insight, plus an increase in the number of models over the next few months and year, will serve to boost sales in the coming year.  But until then...

 Hybrid Car Sales, August 2008
Hybrid Car Sales, September 2007