Having analyzed the Electric Vehicles and the Plug-In Hybrid segments, let’s look at the final Alternative Power segment: regular hybrids. This segment is the most well-established of the three, with sales in the first half of 2017 almost twice as high as sales in the other two segments combined. As a result, the growth in the segment was not as high as for the other two, but 24.9% is nothing to be sneered at, as it was still higher than any non-Alternative Power segment bar the SUV Premium Compact segment.
Highlights for the first half of 2017:
- Although over the years Toyota Prius liftback has become synonymous with hybrids, the regular non-plug-in model, now in its fourth generation, is clearly in trouble having lost almost a third of its sales since last year – clearly the challenging styling does not help, but the model is also feeling the competition from cheaper newcomers and from its better-looking and technologically more advanced sister, the Prius Prime
- Ranking just behind the Prius is the Ford Fusion Hybrid, a car which takes the almost exact opposite approach to the Toyota by hiding its clever hybrid drive under entirely conventional clothes of a mainstream mid-sized sedan; in fact, the Hybrid version’s recent fortune has been rather brighter than that of its conventionally-powered sister, the former seeing its sales more than triple since 2016, while the latter has seen them fall by more than a quarter
- Toyota’s non-Prius hybrids did much better overall than Toyota’s Prius non-plug-in models, seeing their sales rise by over 130%, while they fell for the Prius models by 33% – the Highlander Hybrid did especially well by more than tripling its sales to rank seventh overall
- New arrivals to the charts include Kia Niro, Honda Accord Hybrid and Hyundai Ioniq – while the Niro and Accord are clearly successes, ranking fourth and fifth, respectively, the jury is still out on the Ioniq – it only managed tenth place in the first half of 2017, though its possible the model’s fortunes will improve in the second half of the year
- Lexus does not have much to be happy about either – sales of its CT200h Premium Compact hatch were down despite a recent facelift (the model now sells less than twice as well as the much less well established Audi A3 Sportback e-Tron), while sales of its other hybrids were down an even greater 22.3%
- Another model that can’t be too happy with its performance is the Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid, which only ranked 15th in the segment – while the model has the bragging rights of sharing most of its drivetrain with the Volt, unlike that car it is not a plug-in hybrid
Note: Clicking on the model name opens the sales data page for that model. clicking year in the legend turns the display for that year on/off