June auto sales results are in. And the big news was GM’s big gain in sales, thanks in large part to the extension of employee-discounts to the general public. Good for GM.
But the auto companies’ sales data also contained information of a more heartening trend–and one that is more likely to last. Sales of hybrid vehicles were up strongly again.
In June, Toyota racked up a record 194,875 sales, up 10% from last year. In the month, it sold 9,622 Priuses (up 119.3 percent from the year before), 2,869 Highlander Hybrids, and 2,605 Lexus 2006 RX 400h hybrids. In all, that’s 15,906 units, or about 7.7 percent of Toyota’s sales.
Honda’s June sales of hybrid Civics, Accords, and Insights rose 53.4 percent from a year ago to 3,001.
Ford didn’t say how many Escape hybrids it sold in June. But lets assume that it sold about 1,000.
Add it up, and Americans purchased 19,000 hybrid vehicles in June. Yes, that’s still a drop in the bucket. Car sales were running at a 17.5 million annual pace in June, while hybrid sales ran at a 228,000 annual pace. Still, it’s the trend that matters. And hybrid sales are growing far more rapidly than the overall market. Oh, and more hybrids were sold in June than their cultural and energy-consuming converses–Hummers–have been sold all year.
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(Via Daniel Gross.)