US Sales of Hybrids Down 50% in Nov

:
US Sales of Hybrids Down 50% in November

9 December 2008

Monthly hybrid sales in November were the lowest since February 2006.

Reported US sales of hybrids dropped 50% in November to 16,571 units from November 2007—a volume slightly above that of November 2005.

Overall light duty vehicle sales in the US in November dropped 36.7%.

For November, hybrids represented 2.22% of the new vehicle light duty market; year-to-date, hybrids hold a 2.4% share of new vehicle sales.

November 2007 and 2008 had the same number of selling days.

*************

Toyota.

Sales of the market-leading Prius were down 48.3% to 8,660—its lowest sales month since January 2007.

************

Camry Hybrid sales were off 57.5%, down to 2,174 units.

That accounted for 8.6% of all Camry sales.

Total Camry sales for the month were down 28.8%.

************

Sales of the Highlander Hybrid were down 64.8% to 907 units, representing 11.5% of all Highlander models sold.

Total Highlander sales were down 35.9% in the month.

************

The Lexus Rx 400h posted 624 units, a drop of 62.7% from the year before, and representing 10.7% of all Rx models sold.

Total Rx sales were down 27.2%.

************

The GS 450h posted 42 units, a 58% drop from the year before, and representing 4.2% of all Gx models sold.

Total Gx sales were down 45.4% in November.

************

The LS 600h sold 37 units, a 78.2% drop from the year before, representing 8.7% of all Lx < LS > models sold.

For completeness, the Lexus LS series numbers are 1,272 (NOV 2008 ) 2,668 (NOV 2007 ) -52.3% // 18,804 ( YTD 2008 ) 31,969 ( YTD 2007 ) -41.4%