Mar-Jun 2013, Hybrid Dashboard Report

Wonder how many millions BMW is losing only selling 1-2 Active hybrid 7 series per month?

 

Not much, they split the development cost with mercedes, and they likely just have some small variable costs. They wanted marketing to face the Lexus LSh.
June 2013 Dashboard - HybridCars.com
ytd
Lexus LSh 84
BMW activehybrid 7 14
Mercedes S400H 49
Escalade hybrid 284

It looks like the lexus system costs much more than the mercedes/bmw system to develop and for special parts. The money loser in hybrid for bmw/mercedes was their partnership with gm for 2-mode where they lost much more money The very similar activehybrid 5/activehybrid 3 likely lose some money also. My guess is GM is losing the most money, followed by Lexus on these powerful hybrid flagships.

 

Cycledrum nails it here. Gaso price fundamentals suggest steady or falling gaso prices with weakness in China economy. To answer Cycledrum's question, the reason why Prius Liftback sales so strong is the Liftback design is so much room for people and cargo, not to mention Toyota seems to be +5-10 MPG ahead if the competion. In addition to the negatives for green cars on Cycledrum's list, in north Virginia you pay tax thru the nose on a Toyota hybrid. If there was a liftback Corolla like a Prius, I would get it next instead of a Prius. I wish all states got the 150k/10-yr warranty, lack thereof is just yet another disincentive for Virginia and non-CARB states.

 

Patience only lasts so long in the boardroom.

 

I'm a little suprized on the lack if traction on the Pip sales. I'm sure it will start improving with the next gen or a big marketing campaign specific on educating the public on the PIP.

It is a great car though.

 

On the bmw side they have killed the two mode hybrid which was the one that was expensive, and unified their activehybrids to all use the same hybrid parts. That means they don't really cost that much more to maintain and continue R&D with mercedes. The Lexus GSh and LSh likely are losing toyota more money as is the two mode escalade hybrid for gm. There seems to be a point of pride or something in these big car companies having hybrid flagships.

BMW's board needs to be more concerned about number of sales in their lower end hybrids. Using the 2L engine instead of the 3L engine might really increase sales as it would cut price and increase fuel economy. It might sell fewer higher margin 6 cylinder models though, which may be why they are only making very expensive hybrids. The other thing they are working on is phevs which use the same basic hybrid system for the ICE. That is important R&D as Tesla is more of a threat to BMWs profitability than the Lexus hybrids.

 

Or even a small marketing campaign
Honestly, they are selling them here in Minnesota even though we aren't "officially" one of the states they are sold in yet.
Come on Toyota, roll them out.

 

How many states is the PPI being 'unofficially' being sold in? Not counting people buying it in out of state from an official one. The positive thing for the PPI sales was that it wasn't nationwide, and expansion would boost sales. If there are more than a couple unofficial states, the boost from national roll out will be less.

 

I honestly have no idea.
All I do know is there is one dealer in Minnesota that has apparently made arrangements with a dealer in one of the PiP states such that they have them available.
If there are others in MN or other states is something I have no idea about.

 

One guy in a thread said his dealer had 13 2013 and 3 2012just on the lot.

Who knows maybe a recent delivery isolated case

 

I was in the local Toyota dealer getting my Prius serviced and asked again about availability of the PiP in Texas. The salesman said they still don't have near term plans to sell or service the PiP and he hasn't had too many inquires for the PiP.

 

Really? I thought the reason the Volt's CS mode was sub-par (in addition to to the heavy battery, large wheels/unsprung weight) when compared to the PiP's CS mode, was because GM chose to NOT use a bigger ICE - which would end up not working as hard as a littler ICE ... that littler ICE's had to work harder to get down the road, and thus used more fuel as a general rule.
.

 

IIRC
Volt ICE - 75hp
prius ice - 98 hp
bmw active hybrid ice 300hp

surely they can drop down to the 2L di turbuo which produces 240hp and still have much more power than the volt or even the very efficient camry hybrid. The volt would be more efficient with just a slight upgrade, if it blasted off to over 300hp like the activehybrids efficiency would drop. The bmw ice has almost twice the hp as the efficiently sized camry hybrid's ice. The volt would be more efficient with a properly sized atkinson like the prius and camry hybrids have.

Don't get me wrong bmw would love to get the volt's 35/40/37 mpg in an activehybrid, they simply can't do that yet. Lexus would also love to get close in the GSh or LSh. Its just not going to happen, but the 2L turbo Activehybrid would get bmw closer. RWD and wanting 0-60 power

 

o I c

.

 

Wow I am shocked only 1% of total vehilces on road are hybrids...

 

Too bad they didn't survey what percent of vehicles miles are done in a hybrid.

 

Keep in mind the average age of registered vehicles is 10+ years old. Hybrid sales didn't take off until 2005. So it will be a few years until the hybrids' increase market share starts increasing in the percent of vehicles on the road.

 

Certainly in our household we own 50% hybrids and the hybrid does 70-75% of the miles.

 

In 2012 I sold a 2006 BMW and a 2007 Acura TSX and purchased a 2012 Prius and a 2013 Acura ILX Hybrid. We are a 100% Hybrid. The reduction in Gasoline budget is about $400 per month combined. We applied part of that to a vacation budget.

If someone said you can drive a nice car and get 50 MPG I'd say sign me up.