On Monday, I reported on the overall December 2008 sales figures as well as the year on a cumulative basis. Later that night I sat down and looked for hybrid-specific numbers and some of the figures are astounding. Hybrid sales were down for December 2008 when compared to December 2007 and down for the year.

Despite the exorbitant gas prices that American consumers were faced with in the summer of 2008, the hybrid sales during that time were not enough for hybrids to post an overall sales growth for the year.

Honda dealers sold one Honda Accord Hybrid in December 2008 and 198 for the entire year. The only surprise in this is that Honda announced in the summer of 2007 that the 2008 model would be the last year for the Accord Hybrid yet there was still a model available at the end of 2008.

The Honda Civic Hybrid, part of Honda’s award winning Civic lineup, sold 1,036 units in December 2008 which represents a 67.9% decline over December 2007. There were 32,575 Civic Hybrids sold in the United States in 2008, which is a drop of 4.2% over 2007.

Even the industry-leading Toyota Prius was not exempt from the sales slump. In December 2008, dealerships sold 7,859 Toyota Prius’ down from 14,212 in December 2007 (a 44.7% decrease.) Although 158,884 Toyota Prius’ were sold in 2008, this is down quite a bit from the 2007 sales of 181,221. The 12.6% decline in sales is better than the 15.4% decline that was seen by Toyota as a whole but still nothing to get excited about.

Gas prices are on the rise again; in my area, the prices have gone up by $0.20 in the past seven days. However, $1.69/gallon gas does not cause much of a stir in anyone. It is likely that hybrid sales for 2009 will follow a similar trend. I am still holding out hope that the Honda Insight Hybrid will turn out to be a strong seller though.

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Filed Under: Gas Prices, honda, toyota

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