Quote:
Originally Posted by john1701a
Camry-Hybrid
March = 6,930 April = 6,678 Last Year = 54,492
What do you think May sales will reveal?
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http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008...ed-us-sal.html
Quote:
The Lexus Rx 400h sold 1,570 units in March, up 7% from the prior year, representing 20.3% of all Rx models sold. The GS 450h sold 65 units, down 64% from March 2007, representing 3.9% of all GS models sold. The top-end LS 600h sold 113 units, representing 5.3% of all LS models sold.
Honda saw sales of the Civic Hybrid climb 34% in March from the year before to 3,769 units, representing 11.5% of all Civic sales. The Accord Hybrid posted 53 units, down 86% from March 2007, representing 0.1% of all Accord models sold.
Hybrid sales as a percentage of total OEM sales. Click to enlarge.
Combined sales of the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner hybrids dropped 20% in the month to 2,008 units, representing 9.0% of all Escape and Mariner models sold
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Toyota has a huge 'hybrid brand' cachet compared to other competitors, even compared to Honda. And look at the 2000 Escape hybrids sold each month. It's not like Ford or Honda are doing something wrong with their hybrids. Simply Toyota made a great move by introducing Prius and the rest of the automakers have to catch up.
It's not a bad move in offering hybrid versions of their full-size SUVs and trucks.
GMT900 is still by far GM's best selling platform so enhancing the best-in-class image is by no means a bad move. Are the Aura Hybrid(smaller, cheaper) sales any better?
Also GM has to sell them in LTZ version because of their cost. Likely the hybrid setup costs more than the 4000$ difference between the LTZ and the hybrid. The margin of the LTZ also helps making up for the cost of the hybrid powetrain. Till GM ramps up production of hybrid powetrains and eventually gets economies of scale (Chrysler, BMW, picl-up trucks), they'll keep the price up. So for now it's more of an image getter.
Also, current spike in gas prices got customers freaked-out about SUVs. If in the next 6 months the price of gas doesn't go up or goes up very slow, the freakiness will ease a little and GM would sell some numbers. What other platform gets GM 1 mil. units a year? They'd have to sell 2.5 mil Aveos a year to get the same profit. So, the cash cow is still there, but it's not what it used to be - doesn't meen you can kill it or neglect it.