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October’s auto sales figures were disastrous. And hidden in the dismal numbers were a couple of hybrid oddities. You might view them as thrillers: The Case of the Missing Hybrids, double-billed with Last Hybrid Standing.

Missing from October figures were the Dodge Durango Hybrid and Chrysler Aspen Hybrid, for which not a single sale was recorded. Regular versions were sold—984 Durangos and 1,045 Aspens—but nary a Hybrid. Chrysler explained the missing hybrids it this way: “We have not delivered any through dealers yet, as [the hybrids] are just being delivered to dealers for the first time this week.”

Both vehicles will go out of production next month—when Chrysler shutters its Newark, Del., assembly plant. In other words, those hybrids will arrive in showrooms for the first time only weeks before they die for good. Year-to-date sales of both (non-hybrid) SUVs totaled just 37,049, fully 42 percent lower than the 64,084 sold by October 2007. That rate, said industry analyst Aaron Bragman of Global Insight, probably isn’t even enough to cover the plant’s fixed costs.

And that last hybrid standing? It would be the single, solitary Honda Accord Hybrid sold during October, called out from an overall total of 19,783 Accords. (Last October Honda sold 243 Accord Hybrids within 30,936 Accords.) It’s just a straggler, but it highlights the reality that a handful of fairly old “new cars” is buried within the sales figures every month—this would have been a 2007 model. And it was far from the only one this year; 197 Accord Hybrids found buyers in 2008.

The Accord Hybrid had its own history of headlines. One notable review was titled, “Sips gas. Hauls ass.” And that was its niche; it was the first “performance hybrid”. High-performance hybrids turned out to be a niche so small that few buyers cared. They sold OK in 2005, but 2006 sales plummeted as more hybrids entered the market. In June 2007, Honda threw in the towel. If you want one, check with your dealer; you never know what’s kicking around.

The Real Horror Story: GM Sales Decline by 45 Percent

Oh, and those October numbers? US auto sales last month plunged 32 percent from October 2007 levels. General Motors took the biggest hit, a jaw-dropping 45-percent decline, Toyota fell 23 percent despite a 0-percent financing blitz; Ford lost 32 percent; Chrysler plummeted 35 percent; even Honda’s lineup of small cars couldn’t rescue a 25-percent reduction; and Nissan dropped 33 percent. GM’s Mike DiGiovanni summed it up by calling the numbers “unsustainably weak” across the entire industry.

We’ll issue our monthly Hybrid Market Dashboard in the next few days, but hybrid vehicles are still beating the overall market. The demise of Chrysler’s V8 Hemi Hybrids, and the Accord Hybrid—the first muscle hybrid—show how not to succeed with a hybrid. The next two model years promise to get it right: The new Toyota Prius, the low-cost Honda Insight, the new Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan Hybrids, are paving the way in 2009.

By 2012 or 2013, some forecasts say hybrids may take as much as 5 or 6 percent of the new-car market—about double the current hybrid market. As the saying goes, it’s darkest right before the dawn.

The post Dead Hybrids Walking appeared first on HybridCars.com.

Honda is dropping the hybrid version of the Honda Accord. Honda’s decision to place a hybrid system in the V-6 version of the Accord, rather than the more fuel-efficient four-cylinder vehicle, was a critical error. That decision—to use hybridization to offer greater performance rather than maximum fuel efficiency—came during the early days of the hybrid market. Honda took one on the chin for the entire hybrid market, learning a bitter lesson that hybrid buyers want fuel efficiency in a gas-electric vehicle.

The removal of the Accord Hybrid from the market follows Honda’s decision last year to discontinue the Honda Insight, the first hybrid to enter the market. While the Honda Insight was the reigning fuel efficiency king for six years, the two-seat teardrop designed vehicle was not practical for many car buyers. Unlike the Toyota Prius, a runaway hit because it strikes the right balance between practicality, adequate performance and superior fuel efficiency, Honda erred with the Accord Hybrid by falling below hybrid-level fuel economy levels and with the Insight because of impracticality.

As reported in the San Jose Mercury News:

The decision wasn’t a surprise, as sales of the Accord hybrid have been tepid since it arrived in 2004. Most analysts blame the model’s failure on Honda’s decision to pair electric components with a V-6 engine instead of with a higher-mileage four-cylinder gasoline motor.

In the United States, Honda dealers sold just 5,598 Accord hybrids last year, and just 439 last month. Rival Toyota sold 24,009 Prius hybrids in May, the car’s best sales month in history, and 106,971 in 2006.

"The cancellation of the Honda Accord hybrid points out the fact that hybrid manufacturers have largely been unable to expand the public’s perception of hybrids beyond high fuel economy," said Jack Nerad, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book and its kbb.com Web site.

Mr. Nerad states the obvious point somehow missed by Honda with the Accord. The public expects hybrids to have high fuel economy. Honda learned that lesson the hard way. It remains to be seen if other carmakers will benefit from Honda’s mistakes.

To Honda’s credit, the company has apparently learned from its own miscalculations. The company will offer a new, smaller dedicated hybrid car—about the size of the Fit, but not based on that model—within two years. With the release of the yet-to-be-named new Honda hybrid, the company is likely to regain its position as producer of the most fuel-efficient vehicle available in the U.S. market.

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