Hybrid sales look like they surged in March

The official numbers won't be in until tomorrow but forbes has a picture of the prius c on their article

March Car Sales Roared All Month Long - Forbes

On plug-in sales we don't have phv or leaf clues yet, but volt has an optimistic outlook. Those story lines that the phv and prius c would hurt volt sales seem contradicted. The phv may actually help volt sales as it gets people enthused about plug-ins.
GM adds a week to Volt factory’s normal summer shutdown; company says March sales hit a record - The Washington Post

In Japan, incentives have sent sales through the roof,

Japan March car sales soar, Hyundai saved by overseas demand | Reuters

60% of those fit sales were hybrid fits last year.

 

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Nice numbers, last month without the prius c and phv they sold 20,589 which was a high month for recent times. I hope Toyota can switch more production capacity to the prius c, which looks like growth might be constrained by shipments. Toyota is raising the price of the prius v.

 

volt sales are in at 2,259. Leaf sales are 579. A clearer picture of hybrid sales will come after toyota and honda report.

cars.com is really unreliable on car inventory.

 

lol. I doubt the prius liftback or corolla are really in short supply, but dealers don't really want to post right now, as they are selling well. It exaggerates moves. If toyota doesn't increase shipments to dealers of these cars though to align with demand they could be short in the future. But prius c and prius v seem quite constrained right now. Toyota has announced price increases on the prius v and camry and highlander hybrid, because demand allows them to do it.

+1

Thanks guys. Those are great numbers.

USB, I was quoting a forbes number for volts, but I see the other number also, lets just round it to 2300, which is a great number for the volt, but its a niche car. I expect that prii sales this month will outsell volts this year. The prius numbers are fantastic. Maybe the new models will finally get us to higher hybrid market share.

Does anyone know the breakdown in prius models?

 

I didn't say camry numbers were right and corola wrong. I said all their numbers are unreliable. It has to do with what dealers want to sell or dump, not what is really in inventory.

PR doesn't really accurately show the situation either. There are legitimate ways to count though. I don't know the numbers. Typically if corolla is underproduced its either bad logistics or they will add overtime. That's the type of information that would be out. There would also be reports of dealers ripping people off on corolla. The last time corolla was down to 30 days inventory, toyota had incentives to sell more. It was logistics to clear out inventory. We have this stuff on the prius c, but not on corolla or prius. Prius may get into short supply if their are not enough prius c's though

 

Well then stop posting off topic information and quoting bad sources of data. I only posted to correct you. Corrola is not being imported from Japan because toyota was losing money on every one they imported. They only temporarily imported from Japan, because they had a shortfall in north american production after closing NUMMI. They have often had a 30 day supply. They can add production to Mississippi or ontario plant. What in the world does your love of the corolla have to do with a post on hybrid sales. Are you saying people are buying hybrids because they would rather buy a corrola but can't? Please stop with this idiocy.

Do you have this information from some authoritative source, that toyota can not increase inventory or produce more corolla in Canada? Do you have a line into them, or do you get this great information from cars.com as you stated. Does it have anything to do with this thread?

That has something to do with the thread. Prius demand is up, and they may not be putting enough on the boats. Hopefully toyota noticed this and worked on their logistics before a shortage occurs.

 

I ordered mine in october 2009, and had to jump on a canceled order. At that time they had them in california, but their was a real shortage here because they couldn't produce enough of the batteries. That dealer had 2 in stock with options that I didn't want. I just hit the same dealers web page and there are 3 pages of prii with all kinds of options. Supplies may run short, but right now its just a matter of not having them at the right dealers. Try to buy a prius c right now here, and you probably need to order it.

 

Full numbers are out, and it looks like mainly a toyota show. 3.74% for hybrids and plug-ins.
March 2012 Dashboard | Hybrid Cars