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Hybrid Sales ‘06
2/06/07

Our friends over at Green Car Congress have the final stats on hybrid sales in 2006, and they’re pretty strong.  According to their numbers, 251,803 hybrids were sold in the U.S. last year, up 22 percent from 2005 (and I’m happy to say that Green Car Congress does not include the Green Line Vue in these stats, so the numbers are pretty “pure”).  What’s interesting to me is how the numbers counter the “bloom is off the rose” arguments about slipping hybrid sales. 

The overall car and light truck market went down by 2.6 percent this past year.  Growth in a declining market seems to show some strength right there. Monthly hybrid sales in 2006 were higher than in the corresponding month in 2005, every month of the year.  So we’re talking about sustained overall growth.  Also, hybrid sales in ‘05 took a similar three month tip from September-November as they did last year, and then, just like this year, rebounded with a strong December.

The introduction of the Camry Hybrid certainly helped overall sales strength (the rather lackluster sales of the muscular Accord Hybrid in comparison is hopefully a lesson all automakers will take into account).  Among the big winners were the Highlander Hybrid with a sales boost of 75 percent, and both the Escape and Civic Hybrid saw strong 20 percent growth over 2005.

Our research director David Friedman points out that, “25 percent continuous growth in sales would put hybrids at nearly 90 percent of sales by 2025 – I would take that.  There’s no reason to expect the growth rates we saw in ’05, when the market nearly doubled as it was still in its relative infancy.”

Posted by: ScottN 2/06/07

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