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Hybrid Sales Doubled in 2005

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

May 5, 2006

• GM Invests In Electric Car Engine Plant • GM Increasingly Viewed As "Green" By Online Consumers • Honda Plans New Hybrid for Earth Day 2009 • Hybrid Technology a Presidential Campaign Issue • Hybrid Parking Perk Under Fire in Los Angeles • Tax Credit for Honda Hybrids Dwindles • Honda Civic GX Natural Gas Car Tops Greenies' List • D.C. Auto Show Goes Green • Iowa Testing Hybrid School Buses • Hybrids Star at Detroit Auto Show • How Green Can Your Drive Get? • Hybrid Universe Expanding Rapidly • ExxonMobil Claims New Hybrid Battery Technology • Honda Hybrid Tax Credit Fades Away • Diesels, Hybrids Top RAND Study • Cadillac Touts Huge Green SUV Machine • Next Generation Prius to Stick with Nickel-Hydride Power • Honda Plans Prius-like Hybrid • Hybrid Cop Cars for Aspen • Chrysler Plans Hybrid Unit • Lithium Ion Batteries to Power Mercedes Luxury Hybrid --- • More ...

A majority of new car buyers consider a hybrid but don't buy one because of the increased cost. Nevertheless hybrid vehicle sales more than doubled in 2005 according to R.L Polk & Co., an automotive data collection firm.

Despite the increase, however, hybrid sales account for just slightly more than one percent of all U.S. vehicle sales.

New hybrids registrations climbed by 199,148 in 2005 and that is a 139 percent increase from the year before. While the U.S. hybrid market is still quite small, it has grown substantially since 2000, when 7,781 of the vehicles were sold.

Rising gasoline prices fueled hybrid sales according to the newly published information. As many as 80 percent of buyers say they considered hybrids but many decided not to buy one because the vehicles can cost $3,000 to $4,000 more than their gas-powered counterparts.

Buyers appear to be remaining on the conservative side when it comes to buying the new technology.

Toyota Motor Corp. and its Lexus luxury division accounted for seven of 10 hybrid sales in 2005, between the top-selling Toyota Prius, at 53 percent of all U.S. hybrid sales, and the Lexus RX400h crossover, at 9.7 percent.

Ford Motor Co. with its Ford Escape hybrid make up 7.6 percent of hybrid sales and the Mercury Mariner hybrid making up less than one percent. Ford is aiming to turn that around with a zero-percent financing offer rolled out nationwide in April.

Ford reports hybrid sales were up 68 percent over last April and plans to keep the incentives in effect through July 1.

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