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December 2011 Dashboard: Sales Still Climbing

Hybrid sales for December 2011 were at their highest since March, which was the last month before the Japanese earthquake/tsunami affected product availability.
Prius volumes in December were also at their highest since March – augmented in that now Toyota is including new members of the Prius family under a single category – and were also higher than all other months since August 2009.
The availability of the larger Prius v and the forthcoming Prius c will certainly lead to higher volumes.

November 2011 Dashboard: The Rebound Continues

Hybrid sales continued their rebound based on increased availability. Sales in November exceeded all months except March, where availability was strong and gas prices were much higher. The Toyota Prius led the way, with the highest result since March and this one model (Regular Prius and Prius V combined) representing 58 percent of total hybrid sales. Most hybrid models offered by Lexus and Toyota experienced strong growth over October 2011, again due to availability.
Diesel sales continue to grow, although last month volumes were only modestly above October, albeit there was strong growth vs. November 2010. Plug-in sales increased from last month, albeit at a lower level than expected. Volt sales grew, but GM's 10,000 goal for 2011 will not be met.

October 2011 Dashboard: Best Month Since March

The HybridCars.com monthly sales dashboard is a collaboration of HybridCars.com and Baum & Associates, a Michigan-based market research firm focusing on automotive issues including the hybrid and electric vehicle market.

Hybrid sales as a share of the total market in October were just shy of 2 percent, their best performance since March, just before the supply shortages began and modestly below 2010 shares where supply was not an issue.

The Toyota Prius had its best month since April, which was when supply constraints began. Even after the impact of Japan’s tsunami, Prius sales have broken 100,000 units for the year and will likely be well above 125,000 for the entire year.
Hybrid sales increased by 14 percent as compared to last month, although they were still down by 17 percent from year-ago levels.
Diesel sales continued to climb as compared to last year, although a drop in Jetta sales in October reduced the rate of growth of previous months. Mercedes diesel volumes were very strong this month.

September 2011 Dashboard: Consumers Favor Trucks Over Hybrids

Hybrid sales declined from August—showing a drop of more than 20 percent compared to a year ago, while the overall market was up 10 percent compared to last September. Overall vehicle sales this month were tilted towards trucks—including crossovers—with pickups doing very well. This suggests that small business owners and other commercial interests see better times ahead and are buying these trucks to prepare for new business, and to replace their aging vehicles. Unfortunately, these segments have very little hybrid content and thus hybrid sales did not get a boost from the trend.

August 2011 Dashboard: Hybrid Sales Remain Sluggish

The hybrid market is slowly recovering from a low of 1.21% of the total market in June to 1.86% in July—to 1.98% in August. The Toyota Prius is, as usual, drives the hybrid market. As a result, it's a significant portion of this recovery, with the Prius building up from a trough of 4,300 sales in June, to 7,900 in July, and 9500 in August. Yet, It’s hard to believe that Toyota sold 18,600 Priuses in March of this year, and are unlikely to reach those levels again in 2011.

July 2011 Dashboard: Hybrid Sales Show Signs of Recovery

Hybrid sales in July recovered from last month, gaining 54 percent compared to June—but difficulties with the supply chain have taken a toll on cumulative sales of gas-electric cars in 2011. In July, for the first time, the year-to-date sales have fallen behind 2010. This is troubling, considering that most analysts expected 2011 to be a turnaround year for hybrids, after two consecutive previous years of declining sales. The key question is if this year’s trend will be reversed once Japanese automakers and suppliers fully recover from the earthquake.

June 2011 Dashboard: Sonata Hybrid Picks Up Slack

The number of hybrid vehicles sold in the United States in June continued to decline in the face of supply shortages that have hit gas-electrics particularly hard. The industry-leading Toyota Prius continued its decline due to availability, but the Hyundai Sonata hybrid picked up some of the slack and overtook the Honda Insight to become the second best-selling hybrid on the market.

May 2011 Dashboard: Supply Pinch Sends Hybrid Sales into Freefall

The number of hybrid gas-electric cars sold in the U.S. declined from 34,000 in March to 25,000 in April, and to 16,000 in May. The drop by half in just two months is attributed to supply shortages for vehicles and related components due to the March earthquake in Japan. The lack of inventory, combined with rising demand due to high gas prices, lifted prices (when incentives evaporated). This caused some folks considering a hybrid to choose a less expensive model or postpone a purchase.

April 2011 Dashboard: Hybrid Sales Drop, As Earthquake Cuts Off Supply

Coming off near-record levels in March, the hybrid market took a nosedive in April. With gas prices soaring, consumers wanted high fuel economy—but couldn’t find it in the form of new gas-electric models. The March 11 earthquake in Japan pinched the supply chain for key hybrid models, such as the Toyota Prius and Lexus CT 200h. "You can't have disruptions in production, like we're having post-disaster, without it having impact," said Greg Thome, manager of Toyota Division Communications, in an interview with HybridCars.com.