Hybrid Car Sales, September 2007

Hybrid vehicle sales are down in year to year sales for the second month in a row. A 1.9% decline from last year brings unit sales to 22,859 in the month of September. Prius sales, which makes up over half of the hybrids I track, were up 19.1%, but Toyota sales were dragged down by a lack of performance by the Toyota Highlander Hybrid, which was down 98.1% from last year. Please note that GM hybrid car sales are not being tracked.

Toyota Hybrid Car Sales

Toyota hybrid vehicle sales dropped 3.2% for the first time to 18,130 units sold. Most of the decline was due to the depression in the Highlander Hybrid and RX400h sales, both of which are SUVs. Together, they managed to offset the 19.1% gain in Prius sales. Overall Lexus hybrid sales were down, despite the addition of the LS 600h.

Honda Hybrid Car Sales
Honda hybrid vehicle sales continued to suffer under the weight of the failure of the Accord hybrid sales. But Honda Civic Hybrid sales also declined a little over 16%. That still made Honda the second biggest seller of hybrid vehicles, but quite a distant second with Toyota outselling all of their opponents by almost a 4:1 rate.

Although not official yet, Honda has gone over the 60,000 limit set by the federal tax credit. Which means that in six months, half of the tax credit will disappear on Honda hybrids. Honda also has plans for a family sedan dedicated hybrid in the works.

Ford and Nissan Hybrid Car Sales
Ford sales of the Mercury Mariner and Ford Escape Hybrid remained flat, making them the only company to increase sales this month (by 1 unit). While Fords overall sales dropped 20% this month, the Escape/Mariner have to be seen as one of the few bright spots.

Nissan sold 756 units of its Altima Hybrid in the eight states they allow sales to be made. Given how well the Altima Hybrid does, I'm surprised Nissan hasn't expanded sales across the US. They would most likely double their sales given the high marks the Altima Hybrid has received in reviews.

Hybrid SUV Sales
Hybrid SUV sales have suffered for the third straight month. Now, part of this is because a new SUV hybrid has not been introduced since 2005 and because Toyota has been introducing the 2008 models.

But, this overall trend in hybrid SUV sales may be bad news for GM, which is about to get into the full size hybrid SUV market. Or perhaps it's good news, with people holding off on buying the Highlander Hybrid SUV in the hopes of getting their hands on the new Tahoe or Yukon Hybrids due to arrive soon.

Related: Hybrid Car Sales, August 2007