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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.

Overall sales for September were exceptionally strong, as fleet sales and replacement demand from Harvey and to a lesser extent, Irma, led to the highest monthly rate (adjusted for seasonality) since July 2005 (when the auto industry provided incentives so that everyone could buy vehicles at employee prices). While sales for the year have declined from year-ago, the decline is now 1.9 perecent rather than 2.8 percent as of the end of August. All categories (hybrid, plug in, battery electric, and diesel) were up from August and last September, and with the exception of diesels, all categories were up year-to-date.

As noted above, sales for full electric vehicles were up from August and as compared to last September. In fact, monthly sales of these vehicles were the highest ever, beating out the previous high of December 2016. The primary reason is Tesla which had high sales of both the Model S and X, although the Chevy Bolt also had its best ever monthly result (which sold over 2,600 vs. the 2,000 of prior months). As noted here previously, the Model S and X generally spike at the end of each quarter and this was certainly true in September. The model offering of the Model S continues to change and incentives were available in order to meet quarterly goals. Sales of the Model 3 were very modest, since only 260 have been produced since launch. The new Leaf was shown, and will be available early next year. Therefore, sales will be modest and in fact may not increase dramatically until late next year when the longer range model (albeit at a higher price) is available.

Plug in hybrids had a good month with the category leaders, the Prius Prime and the Volt, selling at a strong level. This category is remarkably consistent with the two Ford Energi products following (although sales were mildly lower than the average of previous months). Sales of the Pacifica (estimated) were consistent, although we expect a modest drop in coming months since the plant is down for changeover all of October. This segment is broken out relatively evenly among Toyota, GM, Ford, BMW, and everybody else. While the Bolt has grown as it has been more widely available across the country, the Volt is down from last year and unlikely to increase as more products are coming from GM in the next couple years. The Volt will continue until approximately 2021 or 2022 when it is redone, probably as a crossover.

The hybrid category had a good month, with the Ford Fusion Hybrid finding itself (uncharacteristically) at the top of the category. The underlying Fusion is refreshed for this year, as is the hybrid version. Year-to-date, the Fusion hybrid has sold twice as many copies as last year. The RAV4 also snuck ahead of the Prius Liftback for the month, although the Prius Liftback remains the best-selling hybrid for the year. The RAV4 continues to grow while the Prius Liftback is in decline. The newly-released Sierra hybrid had its second strong month, but this is a specialty vehicle (a mild hybrid only available on two wheel drive models). We believe the same technology is offered on the Silverado, but sales data are unavailable. The Kia Niro, Honda Accord, and Toyota Camry all had good months, with the latter reflecting the first month of the new model. As a result, Camry sales in general and the hybrid in particular should be strong the rest of the year. The Malibu hybrid also had a good month, again because the product is relatively new. As was true last month, Toyota’s share of the category was just barely over 50 percent given the success of a number of products not sold by Toyota (or Lexus). We would expect that Toyota’s share will fall under 50 percent soon.

The diesel segment showed improvement as the Transit sold well (and led the category) and the recently approved diesel engine started to reappear in the Ram Pickup (although share is still building and will be for several months). A new vehicle has been added, namely the GMC Terrain. The Chevy Equinox will also appear soon.