US Sales Of New Hybrid Vehicles Up 49% Jan - Jul 2007 - Detroit News

[hatrack]

DETROIT -- U.S. sales of new hybrid vehicles were up 49 percent in the first seven months of this year, due largely to a boom in sales in the Midwest, an auto information and marketing company said Monday.

Oklahoma led all states with a 143 percent increase in registrations of new hybrid cars and trucks compared with January-July 2006, said Southfield-based R.L. Polk & Co. Hawaii was the only state to report a decline. Polk said Americans registered 215,997 new hybrid vehicles in the 2007 period, compared with 144,721 in the same period of 2006.

Hybrid sales were up 57 percent in the Midwest, the most of any region. The Toyota Prius and the hybrid version of the Toyota Camry were the most popular models there.

Elsewhere, hybrid sales rose


52 percent in the West.


49 percent in the Northeast.


42 percent in the South.

Lonnie Miller, director of industry analysis for R.L. Polk, said hybrids are a bright spot in a U.S. market that is otherwise down. Miller predicted total U.S. hybrid sales will exceed 300,000 this year, or more than 2 percent of all sales. U.S. consumers bought 254,545 hybrids in 2006.

EDIT

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070918/AUTO01/709180354/1148

[AndyTiedye]

1. Priuses are Selling Like Hotcakes in California

[kestrel91316]

2. Last winter on the way to work one morning (3 miles) i saw a dozen or

so of them.

I want one, too. Everyone I know who has one LOVES it.

[skids]

3. I'm seeing more company owned Prius here...

...plumbers, auto parts delivery, etc. Businesses that do a lot of local driving around suburban roads are really in a position to get more bang for the buck out of them than anyone else, given they get 60 to 80 mpg in those driving conditions, and non-hybrids get worse mileage there than on the highway.

[AlecBGreen]

4. no way do they get 60 80 mpg

unless you only drive downhill :)

[skids]

6. I own one, yes they do.

As long as you stay off the highway it is easy to get 60+mpg. The more you learn to keep the brake pads from coming down and not gas it at the wrong times, the better mileage you get.

[AlecBGreen]

9. i own one too

it has moments when its getting over 60 mpg, but it doesnt average that.

[skids]

10. Where do you drive it?

Like I said, I have no problem averaging over 60mpg off-highway. You must take a lot of short trips or something (engine warmup when you let it sit for over an hour between trips can certainly kill mileage for short trips, admittedly, but for delivery businesses that's not an issue.)

[Xithras]

5. Where's my hybrid minivan?

Seriously. My wife wants to trade her Caravan in for something more fuel efficient (she averages 14-16MPG city), but there's nothing on the market that will seat seven AND carry cargo. I know that Toyota is selling hybrid minivan's in Japan, but no auto manufacturers have released any plans to distribute them in the U.S.

There's a market. So why hasn't anyone stepped up?

[skids]

7. Ford escape hybrid is the closest thing...

...but it's an SUV not a minivan and doesn't have a third row of seats.

[Dead_Parrot]

8. Doesen't the Highlander hybrid have a 3rd row?

Might be a bolt-on, and it's still a SUV, of course...
:shrug:

Edit: Yes it does, with the "popular" package. God knows what the price is.

[Xithras]

11. An SUV will not work.

One of the nice things about a minivan is that it can be used to haul people or, with the seats removed, cargo. And we haul a LOT of cargo with it.

Toyota has already proven that the hybrid minivan concept works, there are just no plans to relase it in the U.S. Until someone does, we're forced to keep driving the gas guzzler.