Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: What Hybrids And Electric Cars Are Selling In The U.S.
After a trip to Russia last Wednesday and a thorough look at Japan on Monday, here I am again, annoying you with ever more worldwide car sale figures. This time let’s get back to basics and look at the best-selling hybrid/electric cars in the USA, a category up 75 percent year-on-year…
Can’t get your head around why you would buy cars that run on batteries? That’s ok, you can discover the best-selling models in 168 countries and territories in my blog and you’ll see most of them still are good old gas-guzzlers. Or today I can also offer you the Top 277 best-selling models in the USA over the first 9 months 2012…
Sales of Hybrid and Electric cars in the USA are up 75 percent year-on-year in September to 39,974 registrations, which brings the year-to-date total to 351,703 units, up 73 percent on 2011 and now reaching a 3.2 percent share of the total market. In other words, if all Hybrid and Electric car sales were one model it would rank #2 behind only the Ford F-Series…
Toyota/Lexus holds a huge 67 percent market share in this segment…
The Toyota Prius Hybrid leads the way by far with 13,914 sales, followed by the Toyota Camry hybrid up a huge 1517 percent year-on-year to 3,704 units, the Toyota Prius C at 3,366 sales and the Chevrolet Volt up 294 percent on September 2011 to 2,851 units.
The Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid is up to #7 with 1,656 sales or a 15 percent Hybrid ratio (vs. 7 percent year-to-date), ahead of the Toyota Prius Plug-in up to 1,652 units.
Top 10 best-selling Hybrid/Electric cars in the USA in September 2012:
You can check out the entire Top 43 best-sellers here
PosModelSep-12HR/119m 2012Pos20111Toyota Prius13,914100%49%149,510112Toyota Camry Hybrid3,70411%1517%34,2912103Toyota Prius c3,366100%new26,1103 –4Chevrolet Volt2,851100%294%16,3484125Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid1,65615%new12,9767336Toyota Prius Plug-in1,652100%new7,72012 –7Hyundai Sonata Hybrid1,5609%-22%15,781528Lexus ES300h1,41422%new2,23119 –9Lexus CT200h1,195100%-17%13,6126510Nissan LEAF984100%-5%5,212149HR= Hybrid/Electric Ratio. Sales of the hybrid/electric version vs. overall sales of the model.
/11: Sales variation compared to September 2011. Pos: 2012 year-to-date ranking after 9 months. 2011: Full Year 2011 ranking.
The Lexus ES300h delivers the performance of the month: it lodges 1,414 sales or 63 percent of its 2012 total, making it nearly one in four ES sold this month in the country (22 percent Hybrid ratio vs. 6 percent year-to-date!). The Lexus CT200h is down to #9 while the Nissan Leaf seems to have slowed down its decline at just -5 percent year-on-year and up 4 spots on its year-to-date ranking to
The Lincoln MKZ delivers the highest Hybrid ratio of all traditional models: 30 percent thanks to 781 units sold at
The Buick Regal eAssist follows at 25 percent Hybrid ratio and #17 while the Lexus GS450h is up 294 percent to #22 and the Porsche Panamera reaches an exceptional 14 percent Hybrid ratio.
There are no less than 3 newcomers in the ranking this month: the Toyota RAV4 EV lands #26 with 61 sales, the Audi Q5 Hybrid is #31 at 25 units and the BMW 3 Series ActiveHybrid is #37 with 13 sales.
You can check out the August 2012 Hybrid/Electric cars Top 40 ranking here
You can check out the general US September 2012 Top 265 ranking here
You can check out the general US 9 months 2012 Top 277 ranking here
Full September 2012 Top 43 Ranking Table below.
More by Matt Gasnier
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Volt I guess is the most attractive of them. First it does not consume gas, second there is no range anxiety, third I heard about attractive $300 per month lease. If it is true then you are driving it for free - savings from saved gas alone will pay lease. And most important it is based on Opel Astra platform which far more superior than Corolla or whatever Nissan can come up with.
I'm glad to see the day get here when electric cars or hybrids get so much attention. A guy did one homemade with an opel GT in the late seventies (crude but it worked) so it was a matter of time. I don't think the problem is so much about the readiness of the industry but about the readiness to buy on the part of the public. The volt probably had the ideal setup but I think the prudent owner would run the engine from time to time to keep things in working order. That and stabil or some other gas life extender should keep things going for years. You have to wonder if one of those million dollar contests would have been as effective as massive government aid. The profit motive, if the government would stay out of the mix, might work better than subsidies.