Forgive me if this has been posted elsewhere, but as we periodically discuss sales, I thought I'd post this bit about overall hybrid '07 sales from a Forbes.com article (by Jerry Flint).

I'm not terribly surprised by these numbers. People who buy a Prius, like those in CA, want a feul efficient car that can be used year round. CA weather is perfect for the Prius. Those who are attracted to an SUV or 4-wheel drive, might fear that a hybrid might not have enough power to get through deep snow or do well in cold weather. Hence, it's best to stay with an ICE vehicle. Still, it does appear that the FEH is the best-selling hybrid SUV. Maybe it just takes more time to get people to accept hybrids in other types of cars.

The article goes on to say that the Prius is accepted so well due to the fact that it looks so different. There isn't an ICE version of the car out there for comparison, so people compare the Prius to other ICE vehicles. In contrast, people will compare the FEH hybrid to the FEH ICE - and given that the hybrid costs so much more, even with gasoline prices higher, people will still opt for the ICE. Bottom line is that perhaps automakers shouldn't make hybrid versions of their current cars, but rather be like the Prius and create brand new hybrid-only models. This type of thinking might be good...

 

The FEH is somewhat of a mystery, as most of the local dealers in my area don't have any in stock. One of the larger Ford dealers, who had just one '08 that I test drove, had added $4800 to the sticker price! I kid you not, the adjusted total was $35,600 for a FWD model. And the salespeople still didn't know about the tax rebates...

The strategy of making a hybrid version of an existing vehicle makes sense when you figure the economy of scale afforded by sharing many parts with the non-hybrid version.
Whether or not that affects the hybrid purchasing decision is still debatable...

 

Ford Escape Hybrid sales were up 29% in June 2007 when compared to June 2006. For the whole 2007 year, sales are up nearly 11% when compared to 2006. see the file attachment (from cleanmpg.com site) for details.

Ford only makes a limited number of hybrid Escape vehicles per year. If I am correct, this is becaue they lose money on each sale. Toyota had this problem with their Prius in the past. I am assuming Ford's financial strain prevents them from producing more hybrid Escape models. If demand is up and supply is limited, be prepared to pay above sticker price for these vehicles. This was true with the Toyota Prius in 2006.

 

May FEH sales were 2690, June were 2192. Of units sold in the 1st half of '07, 43% were in either May or June. This is understandable considering MY2007 production ended in December 2006 and MY2008 model did not begin until the last few days of January 2007.

MMH figures for those periods were 534 and 334, respectively. MMH production was only started in late March or early April, I can't recall which.

Tribute Hybrid production begins in the next few weeks. FEH supply at dealers is near zero. Hmmm.

The dealer markup that sometimes results from short supply is a big consumer turn-off. Buyers often will not consider a vehicle at all, even if it's available, if they feel were treated poorly during a previous purchase attempt. I will admit that I myself refused to contact two Denver dealers when I decided to buy one earlier this year, due to the fact that I remember they had added big markups to the Gen1 FEH back in '05 when I was first looked at them.

Good news for Ford is that non-hybrid Escape supply is also way down, a 30 day supply last time I checked. A 60 day supply is considered optimal. Thanks to the men and women at KCAP, Ford is cranking them out as fast as they can.

 

On the Blue oval forums the KACP employees were discussing that they can only build 5 FEH's a day. I also copied and pasted this line:

"We do have 8 additional saurdays coming soon as we are told that we are a combined 20,000 units behind."

Great job Forbes! It's called research lol~

 

Toyota Highlander Hybrid SUV sales was 14,312 more than FEH and MMH combined which is 13,472.

Ken@Japan

 

I noticed when I bought my 07 FEH First week in May I could find plenty in Texas the next week I had a hard time finding as many. Gas had also gone up a bit and alot of people were realizing IT AINT COMING DOWN. Though most of the sales staff at my local Ford dealer arent to keen on the hybrids. I dont think they have even driven one.

 

Do you have a source for the hybrid Highlander number?

 

www.cleanmpg.com

 

http://pressroom.toyota.com/
Toyota reports their sales number on their monthly press release.

Ken@Japan