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

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?

 

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!

.

 

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?

 

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!

 

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.

 

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. :lock1:

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

I'll trade you a Wii in exchange for your Prius. :yo: :thumb:

 

In April/May of 2007 the US federal tax credit was halved to $750 A lot of people bought right on the cusp. My sister bought hers on April 29th and got the full credit. We bought ours in Mid May, we paid less for a better package from the same dealer. It was the first and I believe the only time that Toyota was offering any incentives for purchase. I suspect that skewed the numbers for both months. Do dealers count a sale on the 29th that is prepped and delivered on the 3rd in the first month or the second? Same with cars that are ordered?

Icarus

 

A year ago, Toyota offered $2500 discount on a Prius. Now you can't even find one in stock. They are selling as soon as they are produced. Sales won't increase until Toyota ramps up their production.

 

There's also the added problem if people having to dump their current cars before buying a Prius. A co-worker of mine has an Eclipse and his fiancee has a Mustang. They're having no luck selling these "gas-guzzlers." Trade-in value is also pathetic.

Gotta say, I really lucked out - I got mine during some kind of lull in Sept last year. No waiting lists, number on the lot, and even paid quite a bit under sticker. Glad my old car died that week. Too bad I missed most of the tax credit.

 

The title of this thread is out of whack with what has been going on the past few weeks--probably because May sales reflect mainly April orders delivered in May, not May orders.

The stock market is in a nosedive today because oil futures just went up 10 bucks a barrel to $135.
When is somebody going to explain what is going on with oil futures? You can't get a straight picture in the media. Clearly, the economy can't tolerate this kind of price volatility.

 

The value of the dollar is declining, which doubly affects the price of oil:
1. oil is priced in dollars, so the price of oil automatically increases as the dollar drops
2. investors buy oil futures as a hedge, which adds to the price increase

For a very sensible strategy to address the dislocations caused by the high price of gasoline see
washingtonpost.com

 

The problem is in oil futures speculation--betting the oil price will be higher in the future makes the price higher. Anybody into oil futures in a big way can do this--from Merrill Lynch to Al Qaeda.

The government can't hope to get a handle on the economy unless they do something about oil. That means lowering consumption and putting some restrictions on oil futures sold here. It also means stopping the drain of billions of printed dollars into Iraq--that country is milking us dry.

The spiraling oil futures price, I think, is just a reflection of the failure of our government to adopt a responsible energy policy and to seek effective diplomacy in the Middle East instead of expensive military solutions.

 

Tax credit was probably a wash, since you paid under sticker. When the full credit was in effect, we pretty much all paid MSRP and because of tax laws, in my case I could only deduct about $1800 instead of the full $3150 (depends on your income and other variables).

 

The full tax credit ended in march of last year, April 1st it was halved. In addition, Toyota had low interest financing on the Prius that ended in April. The dealer I bought my Prius from last year had 8 in stock on the last day of May, the following Monday they had none. Luck has it for me, that a few minutes before I pulled in, one was delivered off a truck, which I bought with 3 miles on it. I got 2.9% financing and a $738 tax credit. This year the only incentive on a Prius was $2000 off the sticker, they essentially lowered the price on the car. Still, a fully loaded Prius cost more than a similar Camry Hybrid.

 

Agreed. I don't know what the actual production numbers were but it sounds like the surge in availability dried up and everything went back to normal. Many of the other posts on the thread seem to say something similar. Not a bad thing -- just a thing.