Hybrid Car Review

Hybrid cars sales were up over 20% for the month of November, even though car sales in general were flat in comparison to last year.  Hybrid car sales are still down 11% for the year, but recent months have been showing a big upwards trend.

Monthly Sales		November 2008		November 2009		% Change
Make	Model	N	%	N	%
Chrysler	Aspen/Durango	35	0.2	0	0	-100
Ford	Escape/Mariner	1,361	8.5	960	4.9	-29.5
Ford	Fusion/Milan	0	0.0	1,401	7.1	0.0
GM	Escalade	0	0.0	115	0.8	0.0
GM	Silverado/Sierra	0	0.0	156	0.8	0.0
GM	Tahoe/Yukon	767	4.8	374	1.7	-55.8
Honda	Accord	0	0.0	0	0.0	0.0
Honda	Civic	1,043	6.5	243	1.2	-76.7
Honda	Insight	0	0.0	1,403	7.1	0.0
Nissan	Altima	353	2.2	503	2.6	42.5
Toyota	Camry	2,174	13.6	1,465	7.5	-32.6
Toyota	GS 450h	42	0.3	37	0.2	-11.9
Toyota	HS 250h	0	0.0	1,407	7.2	0.0
Toyota	Highlander	907	5.7	722	3.7	-20.4
Toyota	LS600hL	37	0.2	15	0.1	-59.5
Toyota	Prius	8,660	54.1	9,617	49.0	11.1
Toyota	RX 400h	624	3.9	1,210	6.2	93.9
Total		16,003		19,628		22.7
Cumulative Sales		Cumulative 2008		Cumulative 2009		% Change
Make	Model	N	%	N	%
Chrysler	Aspen/Durango	35	0	0	0.0	-100.0
Ford	Escape/Mariner	18,373	6.3	15,323	5.9	-16.6
Ford	Fusion/Milan	0	0.0	15,336	5.9	0.0
GM	Escalade	322	0.1	1,850	0.7	442.2
GM	Silverado/Sierra	0	0.0	1,319	0.5	0.0
GM	Tahoe/Yukon	4,626	1.6	4,697	1.9	3.8
Honda	Accord	197	0.1	1	0.0	-99.5
Honda	Civic	30,261	10.4	14,648	5.7	-51.6
Honda	Insight	0	0.0	18,933	7.3	0.0
Nissan	Altima	8,109	2.8	8,515	3.3	5.0
Toyota	Camry	44,384	15.2	21,374	8.3	-51.8
Toyota	GS 450h	627	0.2	415	0.2	-33.8
Toyota	HS 250h	0	0.0	4,719	1.8	0.0
Toyota	Highlander	18,501	6.4	10,057	3.9	-45.6
Toyota	LS600hL	930	0.3	243	0.1	-73.9
Toyota	Prius	151,027	51.9	127,907	49.5	-15.3
Toyota	RX 400h	13,737	4.7	12,866	5.0	-6.3
Total		291,129		258,203		-11.3

An increase in Prius sales, along with sales from the new Honda Insight, Lexus HS,  Fusion Fusion Hybrid and Mercury Milan Hybrid, more than made up for the drop in sales for the Civic, Highlander,
and Ford Escape/Mercury Mariner.

Toyota was the volume leader, as usual, with 3 out of 4 hybrids sold coming with a Lexus or Toyota nameplate.  Toyota was up 16% for the month.

Honda was up almost 58%, with new Insight sales making up for the loss in Civic Hybrid sales.  It seems clear that the new Insight, which Honda intended as a competitor for the Prius, has become the Civic Hybrids biggest competitor instead.

Ford hybrid car sales were up 73% with the new Fusion and Milan Hybrids creating 7% of the overall hybrid market sales.

Nissan Altima Hybrid sales were also up by 42.5%.  The Altima Hybrid is limited to sales in just some states that require California emissions.

GM hybrid car sales dropped by 16%, down from 768 units to 645 units. 

The downturn in the economy, lower gas prices, and a priority set by Toyota to sell in Japan first (sales of hybrids in Japan are through the roof because of incentives and subsidies from the government) have kept sales for 2009 down.  Add in the sales depression as customers waited for the next generation Prius and you have a bad overall year despite the recovery in the past couple of months.

It should be noted that sales may be down for hybrids, but clearly not as bad as for other vehicle sectors.  Hybrid car sales have recovered faster, helped by the introduction of new models and the third generation Toyota Prius.  Except for the Nissan Altima Hybrid, the models that were on sale for the full 2008 will all be down for the year. 

It should also be noted that sales are still way down from two years prior, when hybrids had their best sales month ever of 33,233.  That was 1.7X higher than this months sales.
Related:
Hybrid Car Sales, November 2008
Hybrid Car Sales, October 2009