Hybrid Sales in U.S. Slip 9.9% in 2008

Washington DC January 23, 2009; U.S. sales of gasoline-electric hybrids fell 9.9 percent in 2008, after rising with gasoline prices early in the year and falling along with fuel costs and a collapsing auto market at the end. Automakers sold 315,761 hybrids last year, 2.4 percent of the total vehicle market.

According to Automotive News, Toyota sold about three of every four hybrids in the United States. The segment-leading Toyota Prius reflected the topsy-turvy year: It tallied 91,440 sales in the first half and 67,444 in the second. Click here for a chart.

Consumers changed their buying habits when gasoline prices passed $3.50 a gallon in April, and again when they began to dive in July. The sliding cost of gasoline coincided with a global financial crisis that squeezed credit and dragged vehicle sales to 25-year lows in the fourth quarter.

For now, automakers need to bring green technology's cost in line with its value to consumers, said Andrew Brown Jr., chief technologist at Delphi Corp. "People want the technology, but it's got to be economical," Brown said. "That's the challenge in the industry now: to get the cost of those components down."