January is generally a slow month in auto sales, as buyers and automakers offer incentives to close out the year in December, resulting in payback in January.

This was particularly true for plug-in vehicle sales, as many buyers bought in December to qualify for tax deductability on their 2012 return. While overall sales declined 23 percent from December, plug-in sales declined at a 39.5 percent rate. However, when compared to January 2012, plug-in sales grew significantly more than overall sales, although the absolute volumes were modest.

In December, plug-ins represented 0.57 percent of total sales. In January, this rate declined to 0.42 percent, which was above all rates prior to September 2012.

The Nissan Leaf will be limited in the first quarter given curtailed supplies from Japan and Tennessee, which will not ramp up to “regular” volumes until March or April.

Volt volumes were down due to both product availability and incentive activity in December that pulled sales ahead.

The Accord Plug-in hybrid launched this month with two (2) sales and will obviously increase as production ramps up.

Hybrid sales were in line with overall sales, down 20.8 percent from December versus the overall rate of decline of 23.0 percent. Since hybrids are not subject to tax deduction, there is no incentive to buy these vehicles before year end.

The 3.3-percent share is the highest since April 2012 and is in part due to new entrants in recent months including the VW Jetta Hybrid, Toyota Avalon Hybrid (over 20 percent of total Avalon sales), Mercedes E400 hybrid, Ford C-Max, and the Audi Q5 hybrid.

Midsize cars like the Prius, Camry, and Fusion are the most popular hybrid vehicles, but the C-Max and Prius c and v are also doing well.

Diesel volumes fell 31 percent from December, below the overall 23-percent decline. However, compared to year-ago, diesels did well. The Jeep Grand Cherokee diesel will appear soon, as will the Chevy Cruze.

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