Hybrid Car Review

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