ABG: California leads in green car sales, but there are surprises on the lists

The video from about 8:00 minutes on is VERY interesting.

 

You can see that VA is big for Hybrid sales even though VA is not on the top ten list for cars sold.

 

California air quality may influence EV and Hybrid sales. Smog although improving is just awful in parts of Los Angeles. Childhood asmha is among the highest number of cases in the nation.

 

The Prius population in Virginia is unbelievable. You can't throw a stick in a parking lot without hitting one.

 

"Oregon Buying Hybrid and Electric Cars at Supercharged Rate, Reports Edmunds.com". Not even close to the top ten with 1.9%. Calls into to question the credibility of the rest of their conclusions. Leafs are still made in Japan and not Tennessee right? Lack of off the lot availability at single site dealers common in areas like WV vs the stock piles at the mega dealers near major metro areas hurts sales in those smaller markets. Most people will not buy site unseen but every Toyota Hybrid that hits the lot here sells in short order.

 

Links to the list are broken. Does anyone have the data?

 

Top 10 States Buying Electric vehicles
California 32 percent
Florida 6.6 percent
Washington 5.7 percent
Texas 4.3 percent
New York 3.5 percent
Ohio 3.1 percent
North Carolina 3.1 percent
Illinois 3.1 percent
Tennessee 2.9 percent
Hawaii 2.9 percent

Top 10 States Buying Hybrids
California 24.7 percent
Florida 6.6 percent
Texas 5.9 percent
New York 5 percent
Illinois 3.6 percent
Virgina 3.6 percent
Pennsylvania 3.4 percent
Washington 3.1 percent
North Carolina 3.1 percent
Ohio 2.5 percent

Top 10 States for Car Buying
California 11.1 percent
Texas 9.6 percent
Florida 7.1 percent
New York 6.9 percent
Pennsylvania 4.7 percent
Ohio 4 percent
Illinois 3.9 percent
New Jersey 3.8 percent
Michigan 3.7 percent
North Carolina 2.8 percent


Oregon Buying Hybrid and Electric Cars at Supercharged Rate, Reports Edmunds.com

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - October 31, 2012 - Car buyers in the state of Oregon rank among America's top consumers of hybrid and electric vehicles, reports Edmunds.com, the premier resource for automotive information.

Edmunds.com's analysis of Polk's new car registration data finds that 1.9 percent of all new hybrid vehicles sold so far in the U.S. this year were registered in Oregon, ranking the state 16th in the nation. This rate is more than twice the state's share of all new car registrations in the U.S., where Oregon ranks 31st overall at 0.9 percent. The Beaver State also buys a higher proportion of the country's electric vehicles (1.8%), ranking 17th in the nation.

The news comes in what's shaping up to be the strongest year yet for alternative fuel vehicles nationwide. Edmunds.com found that 3.4 percent of new car registrations this year (through August) were hybrid or electric vehicles, which is a full percentage point higher than the rate of 2.4 percent for all of 2011.

"Mainstream car buyers have been slow to accept hybrid and electric vehicles, but the numbers are trending up, and you can almost hear a sigh of relief from automakers who made big bets on these vehicles," said Edmunds.com Sr. Analyst Jessica Caldwell. "As more alt-fuel vehicles come to the market and as prices for these cars become more affordable, we expect a higher percentage of shoppers will at least consider an alternative fuel vehicle the next time they're buying a new car."

Edmunds.com projects that at least 43 all-new conventional hybrids, plug-in hybrids, battery-electric vehicles, diesels and fuel-cell electric vehicles are planned for introduction in the U.S. from now through the 2015 model year. Car buyers can learn specifics on each of these vehicles at What's Coming: Alternative Vehicles 2013-'15 - Edmunds.com.

Thinking of making a switch to a hybrid or electric vehicle? The Hybrid and Electric Center at Hybrid and Electric Center — Edmunds.com provides comprehensive information on every alternative fuel vehicle on the market at this very moment. And Edmunds.com lays out all the pros and cons of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles at Is a Plug-in Hybrid or Electric Car Right for You? - Edmunds.com.

 

It might be interesting to convert this into a per capita rate as the top states also have high populations. Curious, someone else might pickup the state census data and do the math.

Bob Wilson

 

Thanks. The number that screams out at me is the top 10 plug in states 60% don't have the prius phv sold in them. Now since California is the 800 lb gorilla, Toyota still captures 44% sales in here but leaves 23% of sales on the table. Lack of the phv probably drives this number down. Only 33% of plug-ins were sold in the other 40 states. At a minimum the phv should be sold in Florida and Texas.

I don't think California is surprising to anyone. With extra tax incentives, hov stickers, and some of the worst air pollution in the country, along with some of the most expensive gasoline, you would expect a high percentage of plug-ins to go there. NY and Illinois are doing worse than pike expected while Washington is doing better. plug-ins are following a different path than hybrids, but that should be expected.

 

I'm not sure what that would give us, but hawaii clearly is the leader on plug-in per capita.

An interesting plug-in to hybrid market share ratio comes out though in our top ten plug-in states

Washington 1.84
California 1.29
Ohio 1.24X
Florida 1.0X
North Carolina 1.0X
Illinois 0.86X
Texas 0.76X
New York 0.7

Xs are states that the prius phv does not sell in. I did not have hybrid data for Hawaii or Tennessee, but these both must be over a ratio of one.

 

Ultimately we might expect highest per capita Plug In sales in those states with the highest incentives. Believe HI is a good one for incentives...wonder how PiP does there as far as $$ credits?

 

Not sure why VA so big on hybrids...there were some HOV benefits but these have partially phased out for some important routes. I wonder if the lack of HOV availability will slow down VA hybrid sales. Arlington Co. gives nice property tax relief, so that may explain the area close to DC. Other than that is a surprise with long commutes being the main factor. Also many transplants here so on weekends lots of travel to the relatives etc.