Hybrid Car Sales, April 2008

Hybrid car sales were up 46% for April, 2008, pushed by double digit percentage increases from the Prius, Civic Hybrid, Camry Hybrid, RX 400...

hybrid car sales April 2008Hybrid car sales were up 46% for April, 2008, pushed by double digit percentage increases from the Prius, Civic Hybrid, Camry Hybrid, RX 400h and Altima Hybrid. GM hybrid vehicle sales are not broken out. Mazda Tribute sales are also not counted. This, in a month when light vehicle sales were down by 6.8 percent from last year. April's total was the poorest for that month since April 1995. Demand for cars, and especially smaller and/or more fuel efficient cars was up.

Toyota set the stage once again, selling over 32 thousand hybrid vehicles, a 53% increase from last April. That also means 4 out of every 5 hybrid vehicles sold in the US in April had a Toyota or Lexus badge. The Prius, alone, accounted for over half the hybrid car sales. The Camry was the second most popular hybrid, while the Highlander Hybrid was fourth.

To make the point, note there were, according to autonews, 1,248,649 light vehicle sales in the U.S. in April. 21,757 of those sales were for the Toyota Prius. Which means, the Prius made up 1.7% of the total vehicle market.

Honda increased sales over 50% for the Civic Hybrid, while the Insight and Accord (both retired) continue to fall off the map.

April 2007 April 2008 Hybrid SalesNissan increased sales by 66% for their limited release Altima Hybrid, which is only sold in eight states. Ford is the only company to show a decrease in hybrid car sales, with the Escape/Mariner hybrid falling 16%. Ford cumulative sales are also down for the year so far by 8%.

Overall hybrid car sales are up 20% for the year so far to 122,917 units sold this year. U.S. light vehicle sales are down 7.7%.

Make
Model
Apr-07
Apr-08
% Change
Honda
Accord
318
25
-92%
Honda
Civic
2,855
4,324
51%
Honda
Insight
2
0
-100%
Toyota
Prius
13,056
21,757
67%
Toyota
Highlander
2,394
2,578
8%
Toyota
Camry
4,410
6,678
51%
Toyota
GS 450h
174
82
-53%
Toyota
RX 400h
1,384
1,624
17%
Toyota
LS600hL
0
122
-
Ford
Escape/Mariner
2,275
1,907
-16%
Nissan
Altima
483
801
66%
Total



27351


39898


46%


Make
Model
Cumulative, 2007
Cumulative, 2008
% Change
Honda
Accord
1263
168
-87%
Honda
Civic
9375
11646
24%
Honda
Insight
3
0
-100%
Toyota
Prius
52738
64666
23%
Toyota
Highlander
8597
8898
4%
Toyota
Camry
15687
21479
37%
Toyota
GS 450h
682
288
-58%
Toyota
RX 400h
5349
5553
4%
Toyota
LS600hL
0
452
-
Ford
Escape/Mariner
7732
7132
-8%
Nissan
Altima
1151
2635
129%
Total

102577
122917
20%


Month to Month Hybrid Car Sales Jan 2004 April 2008This was the second biggest month for hybrid car sales. The biggest month was May of 2007, so I'm unsure if we'll see an increase next month. Given that demand is outstripping supply right now, it may be unlikely we'll see an increase next month from last year.

Update: About five minutes after posting this I finally found an update on GM sales. According to TAC, GM had over 1,100 hybrid vehicle sales, with over 500 two-mode hybrid sales (Tahoe and Yukon hybrid sales). Which means there were over 500 sales of the Vue and Aura hybrids. That would be quite a huge jump for those two mild hybrid models, while indicating there was no growth in the Yukon or Tahoe sales.

GM had been having issues producing the Vue and Aura Green Line due to a recall on the hybrid battery pack. The battery packs to replace the vehicles being recalled were pulled out of the production line, forcing the numbers being manufactured way down.

See also: Hybrid Car Sales, March 2008.

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