Hybrid Market Not So August as Sales Plunge in Continued Weak Economy

Hybrid Market Not So August as Sales Plunge in Continued Weak Economy

By John O'Dell September 2, 2010

Sales of gas-electric cars and trucks in August were down 40.4 percent from a year earlier, with only a handful of models - led by Ford's still accelerating Fusion Hybrid - posting advances over their year-earlier performances.

For the most part, though, the summer's lukewarm hybrid activity continued, held down by general economic malaise and  slowly rising gasoline prices that haven't yet triggered a rush to fuel economy as $4-a-gallon gasoline did in the summer of 2008.

Even the industry's volume leader - Toyota's Prius - dropped like a rock. The month's few gains were achieved mainly through incentives or the new-model bump that causes initial sales of many new or heavily refreshed vehicles to rise even against an outflowing tide.

One month does not a trend make, of course, and there were extenuating circumstances affecting the year-over-year comparisons: Hybrid sales in August 2009 were boosted a bit by the cash for clunkers program that gave many people who had long wanted a hybrid but had been unable to afford one the extra funds to realize that dream.

This year, though, not even the Prius could sustain. Sales of the midsize hatchback - despite help from factory cash and low interest rate incentives - plummeted 37.5 percent from August 2009 and were off 16.3 percent from July.

Prius sales likely were impacted by the introduction of the 2011 Ford Fusion Hybrid, which created a bit of a buyer's market for the 2010 models remaining on Ford dealer's lots, said Edmunds.com analyst Ivan Drury.

Toyota, on the strength of the Prius, remained the industry's top hybrid seller, its seven Toyota and Lexus hybrid models collectively accounting for 66.9 percent share of the gas-electric segment - versus 62.5 percent a year earlier.

But that merely represents a big share of a shrinking market. Toyota and Lexis hybrid sales combined were down 36.2 percent from August, 2009.

That actually was one of the best showings for a hybrid manufacturer: Ford fared best with a 17.1 percent year-over-year decline; followed by Toyota and then Honda, down 43.5 percent; General Motors, off 62.1 percent, and Nissan, whose limited-market Altima hybrid - its only gas-electric model - was down 91 percent from an unusually inflated August 2009 total.

In all, Toyota corporately sold 15,444 hybrids last month, versus 24,191 in August '09 and 17,504 in July.

Ford, on the continuing strength of its Fusion hybrid sedan, remained in second place with total sales of 3,894 hybrids, versus 4,695 a year earlier but up 34 percent from 2,896 hybrid sales in July.  It was the sixth straight month in the second slot for Ford.

The Fusion accounted for 3,010 of Ford's August sales, the first time since the then-new Escape hybrid did it in April 2006 that a Ford hybrid has racked up more than 3,000 sale sin a single month.

Honda, with 3,485 August sales - down from 4,943 a year earlier but up 40.8 percent from July's total of 2,475 hybrid sales, was third.

The new CR-Z sporty hybrid, with 694 first-month sales (typical of Honda hybrids when first introduced), accounted for most of the month-over-month increase, but both the Civic and Insight hybrids posted slight gains for the month as well, making August the best in a year or more for both models. The Civic's 2,030 sales were last topped by 4,226 sales in August, '09 while the Insight's 761 were last bested in July, '09, when dealers sold 969 .  

General Motors Corp., whose pricey hybrid pickups and SUVs have sold poorly, was a far-distant fourth. Its seven hybrid models (including two Saturns that were discontinued last year but still have a presence on dealer lots) combined for just 648 sales, down from 1,708 a year earlier but up 56.1 percent from 415 sales in July. The Chevrolet Silverado 1500 hybrid pickup posted its best month ever with 328 sales, up from 165 a year earlier. Drury said the gain was puzzling as there were no significant incentives on the hybrid truck - perhaps the increase came form fleet sales.

Nissan, whose only hybrid - the Altima coupe - is sold in just nine states, brought up the rear of the pack with 284 August sales, down from 3,164 a year earlier and off 25 percent from July's 378 sales.

Big Picture
Here's a look, by manufacturer and model, at hybrid sales in August versus July, 2010, and August 2009. 
(August 2010/July 2010/August 2009)

Ford Motor Co.
Ford Fusion - 3,010/2,353/1,586.
Ford Escape - 728/1,711/1,134.
Mercury Milan - 94/240/90.
Mercury Mariner - 62/391/86.

General Motors Corp.

Chevrolet Malibu - 12/441/14.
Chevrolet Silverado - 328/165/115.
Chevrolet Tahoe - 88/222/80.
GMC Sierra - 51/61/20.
GMC Yukon - 76/126/78.
Cadillac Escalade - 88/214/104.
Saturn Aura* - 3/65/4.
Saturn Vue Greenline* - 2/414/0.

Honda Motor Co.

Civic - 761/717/617.
CR-Z - 694/N.A/N.A.
Insight - 2,030,/4226/1,858.

Nissan Motor Co.

Altima - 284/3.164/378.

Toyota Motor Corp.

Lexus GS 450h - 15/48/16.
Lexus HS 250h -  594/543/165.
Lexus LS 600h L - 15/10/14/.
Lexus RX 450h - 1,370/1,754/1,356.
Toyota Camry - 1,165/2,114/1,276.
Toyota Highlander - 486/836/575.
Toyota Prius - 11,799/18,886/14,102.

Total Market

All hybrids - 23,061/38,701/23,668.
Non-hybrids - 973,246/1,220,046/1,022,889.
*Saturn brand was discontinued in October, 2009.

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.