Hybrids Outperform Market In January; All But GM Post Gains From January '09
By John O'Dell February 9, 2010Toyota Brake Woes Hadn't Been Revealed; Popular PriusTook 49 Percent of Hybrid Sales
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Driven in part by gas prices that hovered just over the $2.75 mark and in part by the presence of new models and a growing acceptance of hybrids as everyday vehicles, U.S. consumers bought gas-electric cars and trucks at a pace last month that kept sales running slightly ahead of the national average for conventional vehicles in January
Although down from December's unusually high, incentives-driven sales levels, as was the case for the market as a whole, hybrid sales were up 11.5 percent over January of 2009 - 17,157 versus 15,393,with General Motors Corp. reporting the only January-to-January decline of the five manufacturers selling hybrids in the U.S.
Sales of non-hybrid vehicles rose just 6.1 percent in the same period, 678,550 versus 639,529 in Janaury of '09.
As has been the case since the first month it went on sale in 2000, Toyota's Prius grabbed the most hybrid buyers as sales of the iconic model - which hadn't been hit by this month's recall following news last week of wonky brake system software - rose 4.5 percent to 8,484 from 8,121 in January, 2009.
The Prius' share of all January hybrid sales was 49 percent, down from 52.8 percent a year earlier, an expected decline in the face of increased competition as a number of new hybrid models entered the market to give consumers broader choice. 
Teflon Toyota?
Although looking forward is always a risky thing to do in an unsettled market, it seems as though Toyota's recall of almost all 2010 Prius models for a brake software update might not have much of an impact on the popular hybrid.
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Prius grabbed 49 percent market share, but brake problems hadn't yet been revealed.
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"Most Prius shoppers aren't looking for anything else and are likely to be willing to wait until they feel the problem has been fixed rather than going to another hybrid," said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds.com director of industry analysis.
"We think the recalls will have less effect on the Prius than on any other model, and it really doesn't look like any of the Toyotas are going to be hit that hard," she said.
Consumer consideration and purchase intent of the Prius, as measured by Edmunds.com data analysts late last week, actually rose in the aftermath of the initial revelations.
All bets are off, of course, if consumers chose to believe critics who suggest that Toyota had been deliberately downplaying serious safety problems in an ultimately fruitless effort to protect its reputation for reliability.
Versus January '09
But back to January.
Toyota, which sells seven Toyota and Lexus hybrid models in the U.S., maintained its customary control of the segment with a 71 percent market share and total sales of 12,190 hybrid cars and trucks. That's a scant 2.6 percent increase from 11,876 Toyota and Lexus hybrids sold in January 2009.
The entire gain was accounted for by sales of the Lexus HS250h hybrid sedan, which wasn't available in January '09.
Ford Motor Co., riding on the success of its new Fusion Hybrid, kept the No. 2 hybrid seller's spot, with 1,867 models sold, a 10.9 percent share of the market and more than double its 880 hybrid sales of year earlier, all thanks to sales of the gas-electric Fusion and its Mercury Mariner twin, both introduced last March.
Honda, which lost the second-place role to Ford six months ago, was third with 1,560 hybrid sales and a 9.1 percent market share. Honda's January hybrid sales were up 44.8 percent from a year earlier, a gain built on sales of the Insight hybrid introduced in March
Nissan, typically the market's tail-end Charlie with just a single hybrid model - the Altima (right) - sold in only eight states, showed surprising strength in January. It pulled ahead of a flagging GM to finish fourth, with sales of 1,059 of those gas-electric Altimas giving it a 6.2 percent hybrid market share and representing a 64.4 percent hike from January of 2009.
Which brings us to General Motors Corp. the company, which put most of its hybrid development dollars into its pickup and SUV lines - and has discontinued the Saturn brand which had two hybrid models - is probably most affected by fuel prices and the overall economy.
GM's January hybrid sales plunged 45.3 percent - making it the only hybrid seller with a decline from the year before - and it finished dead last with a hybrid market share of just 2.8 percent.
The drop came despite the availability of two models, the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra hybrid pickups, that weren't part of the GM stable a year earlier.
Conversely, the 17-month-old Saturn Aura Hybrid sedan, was the only GM hybrid to show a January-to-January increase, even though the entire Saturn line has been discontinued.
Bargain hunters taking advantage of distress sale prices bought 25 or the low-volume hybrids, up from 19 sold in January '09. The only month in which the Aura Hybrid broke into triple digit sales was December, when 159 were sold.
Versus December '09
Measuring each month's car sales against the previous month's isn't the best way to tell how things are going - fluctuating fuel prices, incentive programs, weather and other factors create too many variables. December usually sees a huge push to clean out inventories, accompanied by substantial discounts and incentives that push the months way above average for the winter months, and December of '09 was no exception.
Thus, while four of the five automakers with hybrids posted gains in January over January 2009, only one - Nissan - was up from December.
"The main competitors to the Altima Hybrid in January either had a decrease in incentives or no incentives available at all, " said Edmunds.com industry analyst Ivan Drury. Those competitors included the Ford Fusion, Toyota Camry and Toyota Prius hybrids, all of which fell against their December sales levels.
In the Janaury-December comparison, for those of you who need the numbers, Toyota was down 32.1 percent; Ford was off 34.3 percent; Honda fell 26.1 percent; Nissan rose 25.8 percent and GM was down 65.8 percent.
Model by Model
In addition to sales of the models not available at the beginning of 2009, last month's hybrid sales jump over January '09 was helped by relatively strong sales of the Toyota Prius, Saturn Aura and Nissan Altima hybrids - the only gas-electric models recording sales increases in the same-month comparison.
The Altima Hybrid was also the only hybrid model to post a gain from December '09.
Here's a look, by manufacturer and model, of hybrid sales in January versus December 2009 and January 2009.
Ford Motor Co.
- Ford Fusion - 1,091;1,556; NA.
- Ford Escape - 641; 1,036; 753.
- Mercury Milan - 61; 130; NA.
- Mercury Mariner - 74; 121; 127.
General Motors Corp.
- Chevrolet Malibu - 67; 132; 145.
- Chevrolet Silverado - 50; 112; NA.
- Chevrolet Tahoe - 153; 319; 299.
- GMC Sierra - 47; 145; NA.
- GMC Yukon - 73; 180; 168.
- Cadillac Escalade - 52; 175; 132.
- Saturn Aura - 25; 159; 19.
- Saturn Vue Greenline - 14; 186; 153.
Honda Motor Co.
- Civic - 253; 471; 1076.
- Insight - 1,307; 1639; NA.
Nissan Motor Co.
- Altima - 1,059; 842; 644.
Toyota Motor Corp.
- Lexus GS 450h - 41; 54; 41.
- Lexus HS 250h - 1,247; 1,980; NA.
- Lexus LS 600h L - 9; 15; 33.
- Lexus RX 450h - 1,016; 1,598; 1,556.
- Toyota Camry - 867; 1,513; 1,141.
- Toyota Highlander - 526; 1,029; 984.
- Toyota Prius - 8,484; 11,775; 8,121.
- All hybrids -17,157; 25,167; 17,652.
- Non-hybrids - 639,529; 1,004,371; 678,550.
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