US Sales of Hybrids Drop Year-on-Year in May 2008

[tripp]

Reported US sales of hybrids in May 2008 declined 20% from May 2007 to 35,943 units. This drop is largely, but not solely, due to a 37% drop in sales of the Prius to 15,011 units in May 2008 from 24,009 units in May 2007. Toyota characterized the decline as due to “limited availability”.

What's interesting is that while sales are off, they're way above where they were 2 years ago.

Full Article

Shiny Graphic:

[Devil's Advocate]

I guess Toyota is trying the Nintendo version of marketing for the Prius now, fail to produce enough to drive up perceived demand over what actual demand. (NOT saying that the actual demand is anything to scoff at though).

Isn't this what the oil companies are being accused of, failing to produce and refine enough product, so as to drive up price?

[john1701a]

spin
spin
spin

It's sad that the media fails to look at (or chooses to ignore) the big picture.

Around 15,000 monthly has been the target goal for quite awhile now, clearly supported by last year's achieved annual goal of 150,000. Toyota was able to temporarily deliver more to take advantage of the easily foreseeable demand spike from Earth Day promotion.

Now that delivery has returned to 15,000 monthly, it is depicted as a drop. When in reality, it is just back to business as usual. Geez!

.

[bbald123]

Unexpected and unprecedented hike in fuel prices. Exhaustion of supply during what was expected to be a slow sales period.

Hmmmm, might they be related?

[nerfer]

Originally Posted by john1701a

spin
spin
spin

It's sad that the media fails to look at (or chooses to ignore) the big picture.

Around 15,000 monthly has been the target goal for quite awhile now, clearly supported by last year's achieved annual goal of 150,000. Toyota was able to temporarily deliver more to take advantage of the easily foreseeable demand spike from Earth Day promotion.

Now that delivery has returned to 15,000 monthly, it is depicted as a drop. When in reality, it is just back to business as usual. Geez!

.

I'm not sure what was so negative about the article that you didn't like (other than the headline). Yes, we had a drop last month in total hybrids, but the sales do go up and down, largely on the availability of the Prius (dropped about 5,000 itself). If you look at the chart, last year's May sales were unusually high, perhaps because of the weak April (what Earth Day effect are you talking about? Something in Minnesota for the Prius? Only 2 out of the last 5 years did April have better sales than May.) April-May averages for the last 3 years:

April-May 2008: 37.9K per month
April-May 2007: 36.2K per month
April-May 2006: 22.7K per month

Didn't Toyota actually sell 180K Prius last year? That is 15K/month. I don't recall any specific targets this year, but I imagine they'd want to sell more as they head toward their target of 1 million hybrids/year. Some people might cherry-pick the data but anybody driving on the road is seeing more Prii these days than ever before and that itself serves as a reality check. It is probably a good bet that this will be the only month this year where last year's sales are higher.

I like GreenCarCongress's other article that shows SUV's & light trucks are no longer more popular than cars, and are in a steep sales drop.


Devil's Advocate - you do live up to your name. Interesting perspective!

[Rybold]

I know that a lot of people on here have science or engineering backgrounds. Let us not forget to compare the AREA under the red line to the AREA under the blue line. It is obvious that more Priuses have been sold this year compared to the same time period last year.

Looking forward, I don't think anyone has doubts that the Prius will clearly outsell last year during the second half of 2008, beginning with the June sales numbers.

And note that the May2007 spike was negatively compensated by the April2007 decline. Something must have delayed the arrival or sales of those cars.

What I think would be more interesting would be to overlay a graph of 2007 gasoline prices onto this graph.

[mingoglia]

Originally Posted by Devil's Advocate

I guess Toyota is trying the Nintendo version of marketing for the Prius now, fail to produce enough to drive up perceived demand over what actual demand. (NOT saying that the actual demand is anything to scoff at though).

Isn't this what the oil companies are being accused of, failing to produce and refine enough product, so as to drive up price?

Tell me about it... I thought I was going to have to offer up my unborn third child in order to get a Wii this weekend. Been out since Chrstimas (I believe) and you still can't find 'em. I lucked out though.

[PriusSport]

I don't believe it. The demand for hybrids the last two weeks in May was out of sight.
Watch out for media spin. There are non-hybrid cars that need to be sold.

[PriusSport]

Here's the problem with the data: it doesn't reflect ORDERS for the Prius in May--only deliveries. A car is not "sold" until it's delivered. Anybody who ordered a car after the 1st week in May probably wouldn't have it delivered until June-September. I ordered May 6th, and received May 20th, so I count in May sales. I was told a few days after I ordered, the waiting list was now 2 months. Those orders would not be included in May sales. So the sudden rush in May ate up their inventories. They sold every car they had in May--15,000, apparently.

[Stev0]

Still sold more Hybrids last month than any month in 2007 except May.