Despite Gas Prices, Hybrid Sales on the Decline?
With gasoline prices high and likely to go higher, it might be expected that
Americans would increasingly be turning to fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles. But sales of gasoline-electric hybrids have actually been dropping.
Hybrid sales accounted for 2.8 percent of the U.S. auto market in 2009, but slipped to 2.4 percent in 2010 and to 2.2 percent last year, according to researcher LMC Automotive.
"Consumers don't want to pay as much as $6,000 extra for a hybrid when they can get 40 mpg on the highway in a standard car such as a Chevrolet Cruze or Hyundai Elantra," Business Week observes.
"And even more conventional cars with hybrid-caliber mileage are coming this year, thanks to advancements that enable engines to burn fuel up to 20 percent more efficiently."
While overall sales in January were at a strong rate (over 14 million at an annual rate based on seasonal adjustment factors), the actual number of sales was down 27 percent from December 2011. Hybrid sales were down a similar rate, at 30 percent and plug in sales were down 48 percent (although the low volume of these sales makes the comparison less meaningful). Diesel sales dropped less, at 22 percent, than the overall market or the hybrids or plug ins.
While diesel sales were down compared to December 2011, they were up 21 percent as compared to January 2011. This is primarily due to the launch of the VW Passat diesel and reasonable volumes of the VW Jetta (as compared to last January). A number of clean diesel products enjoyed higher sales as compared to a year ago.
