MSNBC.com has an interesting article today about the sale of hybrids rising 81% last year. The article ends with an interesting chart listing the top 15 states in the US for new hybrid registrations. From this forum, I had the sense there were a lot of hybrids in Calif., but didn't realize just how popular they were in The Golden State. MSNBC article
Here's that chart. I don't have the time right now, but I'd be interested in seeing the population of each state followed by the per capita purchasing. Maybe I'll get the numbers later and spreadsheet it if I'm still curious. The top 15 states were: 1. California, 25,021 2. Virginia, 5,613 3. Washington, 3,441 4. Florida, 3,272 5. Maryland, 3,238 6. New York, 3,123 7. Texas, 2,922 8. Illinois, 2,707 9. Massachusetts, 2,590 10. Pennsylvania, 2,308 11. Oregon, 2,282 12. New Jersey, 2,053 13. Ohio, 1,763 14. North Carolina, 1,715 15. Arizona, 1,672
This is not too surprising since Toyota sells most of the hybrids in the US and they DOUBLED (that's a 100% increase) production over last year. It's clear that if you want a Prius FAST, a trip to CA is in order. I HIGHLY recommend it too. Makes a GREAT family summer vacation
I just threw your numbers into a chart and attached it here. Yeah, it does look like California is hogging all the Prii.
On a per capita basis, California is #2 on that list. It registered a hybrid for every 1435 people last year, behind Virginia with one hybrid for ever 1329 people. A couple of other states were close. 2004 population info at: http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0004986.html
Sure enough, that's the same conclusion I came to. I grabbed the 2004 estimate numbers from the US census folks and came up with graph. The numbers are in Prii per 10,000 population for each state:
Ok, from my other post, add Washington DC to your per-capita graph. Population 575,000 2004 - 6,473 Hybrids (Remember, the numbers are all hybrids, not just Prii)
I just read another article which did specify that the City Numbers are indeed "Metro Area" numbers. Hybrid Sales 1 Los Angeles 10,399 2 San Francisco 8,051 3 Washington DC 6,473 4 New York 3,779 5 Seattle 2,857 2000 Metro Area Census Numbers 1 Los Angeles 12,365,627 2 San Francisco 4,123,740 3 Washington DC 4,796,183 4 New York 18,323,002 5 Seattle 3,043,878 So, looks like SF probably wins the Per Capita Metro Area crown.
And here's a graph of that for your viewing pleasure. It should only be natural that the Silicon Valley would have the highest per capita for hybrids. :mrgreen:
Using the word "surge" to describe everything these days makes me want to throw up. It has become a media cliche. Use another word--any word. Surge sucks.
