Hybrid sales jump 11% in January

Even though gasoline prices stayed low in January, particularly in the first half of the month, sales of hybrids climbed eleven percent compared to 2006. General Motors doesn't break out sales of the Saturn Vue hybrid so they aren't included, but all the other hybrids sold a combined total of 17,591 for the month. As usual Toyota was the big winner taking eighty percent of all the hybrid sales. The new Camry hybrid grabbed 8.9 percent of all Camry sales coming in second behind the Prius. The Highland and Lexus RX400h dropped 20 percent and 15.7 percent respectively compared to last year. The Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner hybrids were up 37.7 percent compared to 2006 and should probably continue to increase through the year as the redesigned 2008 models which recently started production become available. Honda was the big loser this month, with the Civic down almost 44 percent and the Accord off another 29.3 percent with only 248 sales.

[Source: GreenCarCongress]