Hybrid Sales Increased 12% in January

Gas-electric hybrids started the year off with a 12 percent increase in sales over the same month of last year. Compared to December of last year, the figures declined 32 percent, due to the fact that automakers provided large incentives in order to get clients through dealer’s doors at the end of the year. The monthly decline is not expected to continue in the future, as increasing gas prices are putting economy back into everyone’s minds at the moment.

According to hybridcars.com, Toyota’s Prius lead the pack last month, as about 70 percent of all hybrids sold in the US were built by the Japanese carmaker. This represents a 10 percent improvement over the mark set a year ago. A total of 10,653 units were shifted by Toyota dealers last month, so the Prius has retained its top spot as the best-selling hybrid in the US. Honda’s Insight came in second with 1,554 units sold, followed by the Ford Fusion Hybrid, which tallied 969 sales in January. Coming in fifth was the Honda CR-Z, with just 894 units sold.

What this tells us is that American customers are basically associating the name Prius with hybrid cars in general at the moment.  Despite this, in Japan, Toyota has recently lost its crown as top selling green car to the new Honda Fit Hybrid, which is now the least expensive hybrid in the country.

In the plug-in electric segment of the market, the Chevrolet Volt topped sales with 321 cars shifted last month, followed by the Nissan LEAF with 87 units.