April 2012 sales

It seems creepy weird to me to. But the company Prez - Mr Goshen still feels comfortable ... with world wide sales for the first year around 20,000. Plans at Nissan are still going forward and they still plan to ramp up U.S. production:

Nissan will double Tennessee workers for Leaf, battery-pack ramp-up

sales for cars with (at best) 100 mile range are most likely a 2nd vehicle. Folks would rather have "ownership" of the standby vehicle ... pickup ... cross country vacation vehicle ... whatever. So ... for a niche market coupled with "first year product jitters" and a sputtering economey, perhaps Mr Goshen's satisfaction is apropo.
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^^^
Yeah, very odd and yeah, ~370 Leafs sold last in the US month is PITIFUL. I really hope Nissan's really holding back supply to the US or something like that otherwise we might see the a lot of Nissan's $ down the tubes.

BTW, it's Ghosn and it's pronounced like phone.

 

What's going on with Ford fusion hybrid? It held much promise but sales are lagging.

 

Ford is going to begin shipping a new improved hybrid this fall, which includes many changes that should help it cut its manufacturing costs. The camry hybrid and the sonata/optima hybrid are priced much lower than the fusion is today. Ford could drop its price to match them, but has decided to wait for the new one. People that want a fusion hybrid are smart to wait, those that want a midsize sedan hybrid but don't care if its ford have better choices.

The new one will get 45 mpg in the combined cycle, which should make it a good competitor if they price it competitively.

 

I don't see why Ford couldn't offer a price competitive Fusion with the new model. The current one is available in only one trim. The new Camry hybrid XLE is maybe a couple thousand under the current Fusion, feature to feature. Without the LE 'stripper', the Camry price didn't drop much.

Those considering a Fusion hybrid are likely waiting for the new one, or just the deals to move out the inventory of the old one.

 

But that is part of the hybrid premium, if you want an LE but are forced to buy an XLE you may just buy the non-hybrid. The camry hybrid is much improved over the old one, and includes better mileage and a less compromised trunk. As a total package it is a much easier sell.

Yep. They should have reduced the cost of motors, psd, and engine in the new one. They also get to share drive train with the c-max. It should allow ford to pass some savings to the customer in an improved hybrid.

 

It is a nice car. I went with a friend who wanted to look at one.

The previous Camry hybrid wasn't offered in multiple trims. It was as loaded as the Fusion(and Volt and Leaf). It allowed the companies roll the hybrid(EV) premium into extra features with high mark up. Now that the price on the system has come down, they can offer a LE hybrid at a lower price. It was probably necessary for the Japanese market now that that the non-hybrid Camry isn't offered there.

It also allows bragging rights in ads. Comparing the LE to the current Fusion is in line to comparing the Prius with a Corolla though. Content wise, the XLE should be used, and while the price gap increased some, it isn't as drastic as a LE to Fusion price.

Which is why I say to those wandering if Ford can offer a competitive price, I say yes.

 

April 2012 Dashboard | Hybrid Cars

"It was another good month for hybrids, which saw a “take rate” or percentage of total North American sales at 3.38 percent, which follows last month’s take of 3.44 percent."

 

Wow the Honda hybrid sales are pathetic. It would drive me batty if everytime I lifted off the brake pedal, the gas engine fires up. yuck.

Fusion hybrid, 700 sales for month, pretty pathetic.

 

Moore's law at work.

 

Ford was supposed to become big hybrid player back in 2007-2008... never happened. Hopefully it will happen 2012-2013, but I have my doubts.

 

And Ford nearly went under, not so long ago. Rebuilding takes time. Except for the surprise success of the gen2 Prius, hybrids weren't selling in the numbers to pay the bills. Some plans needed to be slowed down and put on hold. A fusion with a hybrid and a direct injected, turbo 4(ecoboost in marketing speak was years off) options in 2010. Then it hit the fan, and never happened. In about 6 months we will be seeing it though.

If the same had happened to Toyota before 2004, does any honestly believe they would have rolled the gen2 in the US based on the performance of the gen1?

 

uhm, same did happen to Toyota in 2008-2011... and they decided to put all their energy into Hybrids.

 

Toyota nearly went bankrupt, and had to mortgage everything to keep the doors open? How did I miss such news about one of the largest companies in the world almost going under and shutting their doors?

It was a global recession, everybody was in trouble. By the time it occurred, Toyota already had over a half dozen hybrid models available through out the world. Putting hybrid development on hold at that time would be like putting truck or sedan development on hold.

Ford's troubles happened before the recession. In away it was lucky timing, because the banks were still giving out loans then, but if they didn't get a loan, there likely wouldn't have been any government rescue.

They only had the Escape hybrid at the time, and total hybrid sales have only been 3% across the industry at most. It was more important to improve and market the rest of the line up or there wouldn't be a company to release the Fusion hybrid in 2010. Without their troubles, it might have been out a year or two sooner.

 

I just saw the first zipcar in my life. I am in a suburb and zipcar will never be acceptably close to me.

I think they don't have minivans because zipcar mainly caters to people without a car and a person who needs a minivan--a family--likely has one.

In any case, it's going to be hard to convince people to spend over $30k on an econobox-size vehicle that is introducing an additional inconvenience (and cost).

 

Toyota April 2012 Sales up a Better than Expected 11.6% and Almost Tops Ford - CleanMPG Forums

Toyota Tops GM in Global Auto Sales in First Quarter - Bloomberg

 

Doubtful. I live in the SF Bay Area and Leaf's are *everywhere*. I work at TiVo and we have 8 Leaf's in the parking lot. We're adding more Blinks, but we can't keep up with how fast the parking lot is filling up with them.

Our EV count so far is 8 Leafs, 1 Plugin Prius, 1 Volt, 1 Tesla, and 2 BMW E's.

When I drive the freeways here, I see Leafs every single minute pretty much all the time. So there's no way only 370 were sold in a month.

 

I think the Leaf is mainly a California car, particularly the SF area, never seen one yet in my area of NY.

 

I live in a suburb of NYC. In Manhattan, Prii are all over the place, but not so much in the burbs. I have never seen a PiP, except in the dealer showroom, and I only saw my first Leaf the other day...and I do look, as I am a believer in EV technology. Have never seen a Volt either.

There seems to be very slow acceptance of hybrids, and you can fugeddabout EVs in the NY area. Although I think NYC would be an ideal place for both.

I may just go do something crazy like buy a Miev. Having other cars for long range, it might be just what I need.