US Sales of Hybrids Up 11.4% in October Year-on-Year

Reported US Sales of Hybrids Up 11.4% in October Year-on-Year; 2.9% New Vehicle Share for the Month
5 November 2009

Reported US sales of hybrids in October 2009 rose 11.4% by volume to 24,475 units, representing a 2.9% share of reported new vehicle sales for the month. October 2009 had 28 selling days, while October 2008 had 27. All comparisons here are by total volume, not by daily selling rate.

Reported hybrid sales include those from Toyota, Ford, Honda, GM and Nissan; Mercedes-Benz is not breaking out sales of its new S400 Hybrid. (Total S-Class sales in October were 1,124 units.)

Overall light-duty vehicle sales were essentially flat in October, according to figures from Autodata, with 838,052 units sold compared to 838,156 units in October 2008. The SAAR in October 2009 was 10.46 million, up from 9.22 million in September 2009, and down slightly from 10.82 million in October 2008.

Toyota. Toyota posted a total of 18,757 hybrid units, a 15% increase by volume year on year, and representing 12.3% of its sales in October. Toyota’s overall sales were essentially flat: 152,165 in October 2009 vs. 152,101 in October 2008.

Prius posted 13,496 units, up 14.3% year-on-year
Camry Hybrid posted 1,407 units, down 49.6% y-o-y and representing 4.7% of all Camry sales

Highlander Hybrid posted 700 units, down 31.5% y-o-y, for 11.7% of Highlander sales
The RX Hybrid posted 1,567 units, up 154.8% y-o-y, for 18.8% of RX sales
The GS Hybrid posted 39 units, up 77.3% y-o-y, for 7.9% of GS sales
The LS Hybrid posted 21 units, down 61.8% y-o-y, for 2.6% of LS sales
The new HS Hybrid posted 1,527 units.

Ford. Ford Motor sold 2,282 hybrid units in October 2009, a 14.3% increase from October 2008. Overall sales of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands increased 2.6% to 132,483 units in the month.

Sales of the hybrid crossovers (Escape and Mariner) were down 52.5% to 949 units, representing 6.3% of total Escape and Mariner sales. The new car hybrids (Fusion and Milan) posted 1,333 units, representing 8.9% of total Fusion and Milan sales.

Honda. Honda reported sales of 1,978 hybrids in October, up 21.9% year-on-year. Total sales were down 0.4% to 85,502 units.

Sales of the Civic Hybrid dropped 85.3% year-on-year to 239 units, for 1.5% of all Civic sales. The new Honda Insight hybrid sold 1,739 units.

General Motors. General Motors reported a total of 1,159 hybrids sold in October 2009, a 22.5% drop from October 2008. Total GM light-duty vehicles sales rose 4.7% to 176,632 units. (This was the company’s first year-on-year sales gain since January 2008.)

Nissan. Nissan posted sales of 299 Altima Hybrids in October, a 46% drop year-on-year, representing 2% of all Altimas sold. Overall, Nissan sales increased 5.6% to 60,115 units.