Why the Surprise? Hybrid Sales fall 9,9% in the U.S. in 2008
Just as gasoline-electric hybrids looked like they were ready to conquer America when gas prices rose up to nearly $4 a gallon in July, a steep decrease in fuel costs -aided by the collapse of the auto market in the second half of the year- resulted to a significant decrease in their sales. According to a report from Autonews, U.S. sales of hybrids fell 9,9% in 2008 to 315,761 units. Even Toyota, which controls about 75% of the hybrid market in the States, saw its sales drop 12.5 percent the past year.General Motors on the other hand, saw its hybrid sales nearly triple from 5,175 units in 2007 to 14,439 units in 2008, but that was mainly due to the addition of several new models like the Chevrolet Malibu and Tahoe, Cadillac Escalade and GMC Yukon.
But as GM's Vice Chairman Bob Lutz rightfully pointed out at the Detroit Show last week, "at $1.50 a gallon, the American public is not willing to pay for fuel-saving technology." We couldn't agree more. If fuel prices continue to remain at these levels and unless automakers find a way to reduce the cost of these vehicles -eg. like Honda promises that it has done with the 2009 Insight, we seriously doubt that American consumers will embrace hybrids or any type of fuel-efficient vehicles for that matter.
And just to make it clear, it's not just Americans; do you think that European or Japanese consumers would choose a fuel-efficient car over one with better performance if gasoline prices were as cheap as they are in the States?
Source: Autonews
- Honda's Insight Sales May Fall 30 Percent Short Of Its 2009 U.s. Sales Target
Blame the ongoing recession along with the fairly low gasoline prices at the pumps and strong competition from Toyota's revamped Prius hybrid, but Honda's execs are quite pessimistic about the prospects of the Insight meeting its 2009 U.S. market...
- Toyota To Ford: Beat This, We've Sold Over One Million Hybrids In The U.s.
Just the other day, Ford pompously announced that it sold its 100,000th hybrid SUV. Today -and we seriously doubt that this is a coincidence - Toyota announced that the total combined Toyota and Lexus hybrid vehicle sales in the U.S. have topped the one...
- Toyota & Lexus U.s. January Sales Sink 34.9 Percent
The first month of 2009 also brought bad news for Toyota that saw its U.S. sales fall to 117,287 vehicles, a decrease of 34.4 percent from last January. The Toyota division that includes the Scion brand, posted sales of 102,565 units, a decrease of 34.9...
- European Car Sales Drop 8.2% In September
For the fifth consecutive month, European car sales fell by 8.2% in September compared to the same month last year (despite the fact that there were two working days extra in Sept. '08 across the region) as the fall-out of the financial crisis and...
- Honda Insight Best Seller Japan
Hybrid sales success has, in a way, been rather overstated. Even in America, the nation that has gone head-over-heels for hybrids, the best-selling cars are not gas-electric. Honda, however, is changing the story. Since becoming the first automaker to...