November Hybrid Sales Plunge As Gas Prices Fall, Credit Tightens
By John O'Dell December 3, 2008
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Sales of hybrid cars and SUVs took a worse beating than the industry as a whole in November, plummeting 50 percent from a year earlier and off 24.8 percent from October.
Industry leading Prius hybrid sales in November were off 50 percent from a year earlier.
----------
Industrywide sales of all new cars and light trucks were down 37 percent from a year ago.
The hbrid segment was hit with the triple whammy of falling gasoline prices, high sticker prices in a recessionary economy and tight credit that cut many potential buyers out of the market.
"The environment is taking a back seat to the macroeconomic situation," said Edmunds.com market analyst Jessica Caldwell.
With gasoline falling below $2 a gallon, many hybrid models just didn't pencil out for consumers when their premium prices were compared with prices for other fuel efficient vehicles with conventional powertrains, she said.
Altogether, automakers sold 16,536 gas-electric hybrids last month, down from 21,979 in October.
To make matter worse, consumers purchased twice as many hybrids - 33,063 of them - in November 2007, when there were several fewer models available.
Hybrids' market share dropped to 2.21 percent in November, down from 2.62 percent in October and 2.82 percent in November 2007.
Of the 16 hybrid models tracked by Edmunds.com, none bested their year-earlier sales tallies and only four, all low-volume models, did better than in October.
The models with improved sales for the month were the Chevrolet Tahoe hybrid SUV, 404 versus 372 in October; Saturn Aura hybrid, 45 versus 22; Lexus GS450h hybrid sedan, 42 versus 22; and Lexus RX400h hybrid crossover, 624 versus 615.
Neither of the General Motors models was on sale in 2007, but the Lexus hybrids weren't so lucky. Both were sold in November 2007, and in that month consumers gobbled up 100 of the GS450h models and 1,674 of the RX400h models, more than twice the number of each that were sold last month.
In sheer volume, Toyota's Prius was hardest hit.
Although still the industry leader with slightly more than half of all hybrid sales in November, Prius volume of 8,660 for the month was down 48.3 percent from 16,737 sold a year earlier and off 26.7 percent from 11,804 sold in October.
"It's just to expensive" when gas prices are low, said analyst Caldwell.
Most other Toyota and Lexus hybrids fared badly as well. The RX400h was off 63 percent from the 1,674 sold a year earlier; the Highlander SUV hybrid down 65 percent to 907 from 2,577; and the Camry hybrid sedan down 57 percent to 2,174 sales from 5,118 in November 2007.
Nissan's Altima sedan hybrid, however, fell farthest percentage-wise, the 353 sold last month representing a 70 percent decline from 1,191 sold in November 2007.
Honda's Civic hybrid was close behind, its 1,043 November sales down 68 percent from 3,238 sold a year earlier.
The Honda may have been hurt because the company is bringing out the slightly smaller, less expensive Insight hybrid next year and some consumers could be waiting for that model, said Caldwell.
Other hybrids in November's tally, and their October sales, include the GMC Yukon SUV, 190 sales versus 193; the Cadillac Escalade SUV, 173 versus 230; the Saturn Vue Greenline, 328 versus 354; the Chevrolet Malibu sedan hybrid, 195 versus 325; and the Lexus LS600h sedan, 37 versus 55. None of the models were on the market in 2007.
The Ford Escape SUV hybrid chalked up 1,185 sales in November, down from 1,782 in October and 1,846 a year earlier, while the Mercury Mariner SUV hybrid's 176 sales were down from 215 a month earlier and 378 in November 2007.
LEAVE A COMMENT