Hybrid Sales Increase In June
For the past six months, the hybrid vehicle market has done something that not many people expected: it has grown. Sales figures have been compiled for the month of June, and the trend continues with a 9% increase in hybrid car sales over June 2008. Perhaps the most impressive part of these sales numbers is the fact that the overall automarket has shrunk by about 28% versus June of last year.
There were a total of 26,205 hybrid vehicles sold in June, the largest amount in 13 months. The leader by a wide margin was, as expected, the Toyota Prius, which accounted for almost half of those sales with 12,998. The introduction of the new 2010 Prius was the driving factor for Toyota’s sales, and the Prius also affected the sales of Honda’s Insight and Civic hybrid, which dropped by 25% and 42%, respectively, versus sales in May. The other big hybrid car on the market, the Ford Fusion Hybrid, managed to further increase its market share by 10%. Another factor that probably contriubuted to the boost in hybrid sales was an increase in gas prices, which were about 30 cents/gallon more expensive on average than May’s prices.
