The economy sucks, we all know that. But the decline in Prius sales may have finally hit bottom as we saw a rise in May sales compared to April. Taking into account that the 2010 Prius was not available for about 95% of May, it looks like Prius sales may have been on their way up on their own without sales of the new model. May sales were still down 30% compared to May 2008, but gas was about $1.50 higher last May. -- CURRENT MONTH -- -- CALENDAR YEAR TO DATE -- DSR % DSR % 2009 2008 CHG 2009 2008 CHG PRIUS 10,091 15,011 -30.2 42,753 79,675 -45.5 Toyota Division passenger cars recorded May sales of 88,173 units, down 40.0 percent from the same period last year, but up 24.8 percent over April 2009. Camry and Camry Hybrid remained Toyota’s volume leader in May, posting combined monthly sales of 31,325 units. Corolla recorded sales of 23,576 units. Yaris reported sales of 10,130 units for the month. The Prius mid-size gas-electric hybrid posted May sales of 10,091 units. pressroom.toyota.com/pr/tms/toyota-reports-may-sales-93505.aspx
I find these numers quite interesting. First off, on the surface this is what they're saying: Model ---Sales ---Percent Total Camry ---31,325 ---35.5 Corolla ---23,576 ---26.7 Yaris ----10,130 ----11.5 Prius ----10,090 ----11.4 All other -13,051 ----14.8 Now, the all other category encompases 12 of the 16 models Toyota offers: Matrix, Venza, Avalon, Tacoma, Tundra, Rav4, FJ, Highlander, 4Runner, Secoia, LCruiser, and Sienna. This means that 25% of Toyota's model line produces 85.1% of their sales! If I was a Toyota marketing manager, I would consider dropping a model or 2 to reduce cost.
So this year: 10,091 - May 8,385 - April 8,924 - March 7,232 - February 8,121 - January This in spite of VW's wholesale commitment to pushing the Jetta TDI and the Honda Insight. We're already seeing efforts by dealers and regions to 'sand bag' the 2010 with dealer and port added 'eye candy.' In the meanwhile, GM and Chrysler, have imploded leaving only the European diesel makers to carry the hybrid-skeptic torch. This will be a very interesting year! Bob Wilson
I'm assuming that with GM closing nine factories and how over the past several months there has been uncertainty about GM, consumers have been weary about buying from GM,, and people who were looking to buy a new car last month were likely taking a much closer look at Toyota vehicles.
Sales are "up" in May compared to the utterly dismal April. Otherwise, "up" is used in a very loose sense. I wouldn't say that we're seeing a light of any kind, just some new things to buy and the few people who can buy are.
What I would like to know, I never saw this published anywhere, is how many USA Prius 2010 pre-orders where made up to the day the car begun sales there. We know quite well that in Japan Toyota gathered about 80 thousand pre-orders up to May 18th, but we don't know how many Toyota gathered in the USA. This info would give us: a) A good indication of how well spread the word was about the new Prius; b) An excellent indication about "if" we are going to see waiting lists for the 2010 model; c) A good indication on whether the Prius sales balance between the USA / Japan is changing in percentage values.
I have to believe promoting and discounting remaining '09's was largely responsible for the increase - nothing wrong with that, typical end of model year clearance. I still don't think we will know about new Prius (or Insight) sales for a few months until the pipelines are full again and the first wave of 'have to be first' buyers are through...
These are interesting figures to be sure. From previous readings I thought that Toyota was targeting 100K 2010 Priis this year. At the current pace they will be well off that mark. They would need to sell close to 20K on average for the rest year to make their mark. My guess they may sell on average 13K a month which would put them at about 80K which is still quite a bit off their target. Unless gas prices go up dramatically or the economy picks up substantially its far-fetched that toyota will have that great a year.
Speaking of light at the end of the tunnel, my wife and I stopped by Big Two Toyota where I purchased my 09 to pick up a dash mat, and talking to my salesman I learned something aquite astounding: A week ago we stopped by to order the dash mat and saw the pearl white 2010 they just got in (the one I jovially referred to in my post that she broke it) and learned in this past week they got in another 6 and already sold them all! That's 7 2010 vehicles in 7 days. Amazing.
