May 2010 Dashboard: Hybrid Car Sales Rebound
Published June 3, 2010
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Sales of gas-electric cars jumped nearly 20 percent in May, compared to last month, outpacing the overall vehicle market that increased by 12.3 percent. Sales of the 2010 Toyota Prius, which continues to make up half of all hybrid purchases, increased by 13.5 percent to 14,248 units—despite a relatively poor showing by the entire Toyota brand. Industry observers believe that Toyota has yet to overcome negative publicity from safety recalls earlier this years, yet car shoppers are apparently excusing the Toyota Prius from those quality concerns.
2010 Toyota Prius.
Sales of the Ford Fusion Hybrid accelerated by a whopping 64 percent to 2,486 units. Ford also added nearly 25 percent more sales of the Ford Escape Hybrid. At this point, Ford has decisively leapfrogged Honda to become the number two seller of hybrid cars. Toyota owns 68 percent of the hybrid market; Ford holds 14 percent; and Honda has dropped to nearly 9 percent of hybrid car sales. The upcoming Honda CR-Z hybrid might help the company regain the second place spot—and Honda executives are promising a clean-slate approach for future hybrids.
Sales of the Altima hybrid, which is only available in eight states, soared by 253 percent. It’s unclear if publicity about the company’s all-electric Nissan Leaf helped raise the green perception of the entire Nissan brand.
BMW shipped the first 7 units of its $103,000 ActiveHybrid 7. Those units, combined with 12 reported sales of the BMW X6, reveal the company’s half-hearted efforts with hybrids. General Motors and Mercedes haven’t fared much better.
Clean diesel sales were up by 8.4 percent to 6,961 units in May compared to last month. Volkswagen continues to dominate clean diesel sales with nearly 80 percent of the market, led by the Jetta TDI, which single-handedly is responsible for 62 percent of all clean diesel purchases.
Despite the rebound in May, hybrid gas-electric cars continue to lag behind the overall market in year-to-date sales, with an 8.5 percent increase so far in 2010 over last year—compared to a 17.2 percent increase in the overall market. That’s not a big surprise, considering that average U.S. gas prices are about 20 cents lower than this time last year. Public outrage over the Gulf oil spill has created a latent demand for fuel-efficient or petroleum-free alternatives—but as long as gas is cheap, sales of hybrids, clean diesel and upcoming plug-in cars will be dampened. If and when gas prices start to climb, Toyota and Ford will be well positioned with hybrids, and Volkswagen with clean diesel vehicles.
May 2010 Hybrid Car Sales Numbers
Hybrids sold in the US (May 2010): 28,202
Hybrid Take-Rate: 2.56%
US hybrid sales for May 2010
| Model | Units | vs. last month | vs. May 2009 | CYTD | vs. CYTD 2009 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toyota Prius | 14,248 | 13.5% | 41.2% | 55,041 | 28.7% |
| Ford Fusion | 2,486 | 64.0% | 32.4% | 7,998 | 138.6% |
| Honda Insight | 1,913 | 1.8% | -31.2 | 8,766 | 61.0% |
| Toyota Camry | 1,455 | -12.1% | -50.5% | 6,537 | -40.1% |
| Lexus HS 250h | 1,360 | 26.4% | n/a | 5,889 | n/a |
| Lexus RX450h | 1,358 | 10.2% | 245.5% | 5,741 | 8.9% |
| Ford Escape | 1,302 | 24.2% | -23.5% | 4,861 | -17.4% |
| Altima | 1,167 | 253.6% | 283.3% | 3,569 | 42.3% |
| Honda Civic | 717 | 15.5% | -65.5% | 2,516 | -76.6% |
| Toyota Highlander | 683 | -1.3% | -49.4% | 2,834 | -46.1% |
| Chevy Silverado | 299 | 179.4% | 247.7% | 635 | 173.7% |
| Chevy Tahoe | 241 | 70.9% | -13.0% | 745 | -44.6% |
| GMC Yukon | 193 | 34.0% | 22.9% | 614 | -17.8% |
| Mercedes ML450 | 181 | 389.2% | n/a | 424 | n/a |
| Cadillac Escalade | 131 | 14.9% | -36.7% | 566 | -38.0% |
| Mercedes S400 | 101 | -6.5% | n/a | 461 | n/a |
| Mercury Mariner | 81 | 14.1% | -35.2% | 404 | -32.6% |
| Mercury Milan | 76 | -16.5% | -62.4% | 424 | -23.6% |
| Mazda Tribute | 61 | 5.2% | -52.0% | 263 | -38.8% |
| Chevy Malibu | 41 | -38.8% | -94.2% | 323 | -84.9% |
| GMC Sierra | 38 | -29.6% | -13.6% | 246 | 113.9% |
| Lexus GS450h | 38 | 52.0% | -11.6% | 157 | -13.3% |
| BMW X6 | 12 | -42.9% | n/a | 97 | n/a |
| Lexus LS600hL | 8 | 14.3% | -70.4% | 48 | -61.9% |
| BMW ActiveHybrid 7 | 7 | n/a | n/a | 7 | n/a |
| Saturn Vue | 3 | -25.0% | -98.7% | 33 | -97.4% |
| Saturn Aura | 2 | n/a | -94.3% | 33 | -75.4% |
| All hybrids | 28,202 | 19.2% | 9.2% | 109,232 | 8.5% |
| All vehicles | 1,102,899 | 12.3% | 19.1% | 4,630,284 | 17.2% |
May 2010 Clean Diesel Car Sales Numbers
Clean Diesels sold in the US (May 2010): 6,961
Diesel Take-Rate: 0.63%
US clean diesel sales for May 2010
| Model | Units | vs. last month | vs. May 2009 | CYTD | vs. CYTD 2009 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volkswagen Jetta | 4,347 | 20.0% | 14.5% | 15,626 | 32.7% |
| Volkswagen Golf | 598 | 8.1% | n/a | 2,161 | n/a |
| BMW X5 | 619 | 28.2% | 348.6% | 3,256 | 126.4% |
| BMW 335d | 207 | -51.5% | 162.0% | 1,188 | 197.7% |
| Mercedes GL320 | 311 | 3.0% | 37.6% | 1,207 | 1.9% |
| Audi A3 | 237 | -20.2% | 1,287 | n/a | n/a |
| Audi Q7 | 219 | -3.1% | -37.4% | 1,054 | 74.8% |
| Mercedes ML320 | 220 | 14.6% | -17.0% | 785 | -43.4% |
| Volkswagen Touareg | 119 | -36.0% | 77.6% | 813 | 645.9% |
| Jeep Cherokee | 65 | -4.4% | -7.1% | 451 | 15.6% |
| Mercedes R320 | 14 | -76.7% | -65.9% | 154 | -22.2% |
| Mercedes E320 | 5 | -37.5% | -96.2% | 42 | -91.4% |
| All clean diesels | 6,961 | 8.4% | 34.8% | 28,024 | 55.9% |
| All vehicles | 1,102,899 | 12.3% | 19.1% | 4,630,284 | 17.2% |
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13 weeks ago
As usual thank you very much for the for the Dashboard numbers!
Ford sales acceleration is very impressive!
13 weeks ago
Thank you for putting this data together in a very readable and usable format. It's great to check this out every month. Go Toyota, Ford and VW!
13 weeks ago
I was in a Ford Dealorship today asking questions about their Fusion Hybrid. I asked him if I would have to change my driving habits to get the stated mileage. He said I would have to keep my foot off the gas as much as possible our I wouldn't be able to get the mileage stated. I really do not like having to drive like my grandma to get good mileage. I have in the past owned diesel cars that averaged 45-50 mpg and changed nothing in my driving habits. I'm really sold on diesel cars because of their drive-ability along with their great mileage. Most people do not realize just how good diesels are. I'm not a road racer but whenever I need or want to push on the gas a little I do not want to worry about my mileage going through the floor! With a diesel you don't have to worry about it, just knowing with the great torque on tap that comes on about 1700-1900 rpms. Those of you who haven't drove a diesel car, go drive one so you can see what I mean.
13 weeks ago
Looks to me like Toyota is running running full speed with Ford and VW at least moving forward. Time for Honda to rethink its IMA and for the others to get off of their fat butts and start something. OK, maybe Nissan has started something with the Leaf, but the others really need to get going.
13 weeks ago
I find it interesting that these charts show the Jetta TDI is the second most popular "green" car in the US after the Prius, not another hybrid. Without it's addition to these charts I wouldn't have guess that. Go TDI.
As for Honda, I'm interested to see how the CRZ will sell, but I wish they would bring back their diesel plans as well. A two-pronged approach with hybrids and diesels sounds like a good idea to me. That's what VW is planing to do in the next few years.
13 weeks ago
Biggest Japan May sales (Still higher than USA):
Toyota Prius: 27,208
Honda Insight: 3,156
Honda CR-Z: 2,573
Japan top sales list includes only top 30 sales cars, unfortunately Mitsubishi i-MeEV is not in top 30 yet :(
http://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.jada.or.jp...
13 weeks ago
tglaze, if you drove a hybrid -- any hybrid -- you will have to modify your driving a little bit, not really for the gas-saving reason but for safety reason, for this reason alone: the hybrids' torque curves are different. If you press on your gas peddle as hard as you do your non-hybrids, you will accelerate far faster. That, however, doesn't take much effort to adapt to.
13 weeks ago
My experience with our '08 Escape Hybrid has been that you can fairly easily meet the EPA ratings by just driving normally. You can exceed EPA ratings by a comfortable margin by adopting hypermiling techniques and it doesn't involve keeping your foot off the throttle, just learning to use it judiciously and learning to modulate your braking to recapture as much energy via regen as possible.
13 weeks ago
My experience with the Fusion Hybrid is the only change in driving habits needed to meet the EPA numbers is earlier and gentler breaking (which maximizes energy regeneration rather than squandering it by friction braking). This has the added benefit of greatly reducing the risk of rear-end collisions, both to the guy in front of you and the numbnutz who's on his phone texting behind you.
I'm a lead foot by nature, and a life-long driver of high performance luxury cars. I absolutely love the power off the line in the Fusion Hybrid. Without changing my jackrabbit-starting ways, I easily meet the 41 EPA city MPG with gentle breaking alone. Note that in very cold or very hot weather, the Fusion Hybrid MPG drops to around 36 MPG (heating and cooling loads).
Enjoy
Steve
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