Hybrid Car Sales, April 2007

Hybrid car sales jumped to 27,351 units sold, an increase of 26.0% over last April. Toyota and, to be specific, the Prius are still the main driving force. Toyota sold 21,418 units, which means three out of every four hybrids sold last month were from Toyota or Lexus. Honda came in a distant second, selling 3,175 units. While Ford and Nissan sold 2,275 and 483 units, respectively. GM does not break out their (mild) hybrid cars sales and so are not included.

Toyota Hybrid Sales
Toyota sold 13,056 Prius units, an increase of 58.6% from last April. Which means almost half (47.7%) of all hybrids sold last month were Prius. Sales of the Prius were way down from March, but that may be due to the issues surrounding the federal tax credit. The end of March marked the next phase for Toyota, which cut all Toyota models down to 25% of their original credit amounts. So its quite likely many customers got a rush order delivered in March to take advantage.

Highlander Hybrid sales were down 36.5% to 2,394 units sold. Camry Hybrid sales entered their second year of sales, hitting 4,410 units. The Camry Hybrid retained its position as the second most popular hybrid, capturing 16 percent of the market.

Lexus RX 400h sales decreased by 38.4% to 1,384 units. Lexus GS 450h sales were up as it started its second year of sales by increasing sales by 23.4% to 174 units sold.

Honda Hybrid Sales
Honda Hybrid sales were down last month. Accord Hybrid sales continue to suffer. They were down 48.2% from last year to 318 units sold. The Accord Hybrid was built for performance, not for fuel economy and sales have been dropping consistently. Honda Civic Hybrid sales also dropped 7.5% to 2,855 units sold. By capturing over 10 percent of the hybrid market, the Civic stayed in third place in the hybrid market. Honda also sold 2 Insights, the discontinued two-seater.

Ford and Nissan Hybrid Sales
Ford Escape and Mariner Hybrid sales dropped by 33.5% to 2,275 units sold. Nissan sold 483 units of the Altima hybrid. Nissan has chosen to sell the Altima Hybrid in just eight states, those who follow California's stricter emissions guidelines.

Hybrid SUV Sales
Of some note: hybrid SUV sales have decreased 35.8% from last April. Hybrid SUV sales have only increased twice in the past 11 months. Higher gas prices may be affecting even those SUVs with more fuel economy. Or, its possible these figures are being biased as some hybrid SUV buyers are going to the Saturn Vue Greenline, whose sales numbers I do not have.

These numbers should show some dramatic increases by the end of the year as GM and then DaimlerChrysler followed by BMW enter the hybrid SUV market with their dual-mode hybrid systems installed in their SUVs.

Overall Car Sales in April, 2007
April car sales were down 7.6% in the month of April. Only BMW, DaimlerChrysler and Mitsubishi showed increases from last April. According to some analysts, rising gas prices and a weak housing market have depressed the automotive market. The increase in hybrid car sales may be a sign of consumers moving to cars with higher fuel economy.