Taken from Motley Fool this morning: There's something to be said for being the "first mover" in an industry trend. Those years of extra experience in tinkering with a new idea can be invaluable in helping the first mover fend off inroads into its business by copycats. Hybrid engine pioneer Honda (NYSE: HMC) proved that rule once again on Thursday, when the 2005 federal fuel economy report came out and gave the company top honors for fuel efficiency. Honda's Insight hybrid gas-electric vehicle won first place in the ratings (in its manual transmission version). Moreover, out of the top five fuel-efficient vehicles, Honda claimed four of the slots: two went to versions of the Insight; two to versions of the company's even more popular Civic hybrid. The company most often cited as leading the pack in commercializing hybrid vehicles, Toyota (NYSE: TM), grabbed just one of the top five slots – number-two, for its Prius hybrid. (Still, considering that Toyota is in the middle of flooding the American market with Prii, the easy availability of the Prius could well make the number-two mileage-getter number-one in hybrid sales in 2005.) Flooding the market? Are they kidding. There are still so many people who have not gotten their cars, I would suspect that it would much more than the new numbers we have heard from Toyota to get even close to having a Prius stay on the lot longer than a day or two. Read entire article by clicking this link.
So, let's recap. Honda has 2 hybrids out - the Insight & the Civic. There are 2 versions of each of these cars out (Auto & Man.). Toyota has one hybrid out - the Prius. There is one version of the Prius. So basically, Toyota is still batting 1,000 when it comes to being at the top of the list. Stupid spin.
What these "experts" miss is that the mid-sized Prius sits between two versions of Honda's MG sports car sized hybrid in the MPG game. That speaks volumes about the different technologies. (I still like a definition I heard years ago...ex - has been, spurt - drip under pressure.)
After reading about some of articles they've written in other forums, I don't even bother wasting a click on them.
(I could not find September sales of Civic Hybrid, so) This is some out-dated data from January to May, 2004. http://www.hondanews.com/CatID1000?mid=2004060256078 http://pressroom.toyota.com/photo_library/...tml?id=20040602 Year to date(May) sales Insight --- 424 Civic Hybrid --- 12,206 Prius --- 17,564 We can imagine which car manufacturer is contributing to save energy. Regards, Ken@Japan
the Prius outsold the Hondas combined by a 5 to 3 margin. it would have been 3 to 1 if we added in the people on the waiting list. it would have been 4 or 5 to 1 if we added in people who were discouraged by the long waiting lists and went elsewhere. the last figure is highly speculative because it was difficult to tell how many people who wanted a Prius and ended up with a Civic hybrid.
That's ok, it's their own credibility that they hurt when they don't bother themselves with the facts of the details - along the same lines, when NPR learns of an error in their reporting, they usually mention the correction and give credit to the person who brought it to their attention. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jkash\";p=\"44586)</div>
