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Hybrid Sales in Australia Up 2% in 2008
8 January 2009
The Age. Sales data released by Australia’s Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) shows 5,042 hybrid cars were sold in 2008, up 2% on the previous year. Combined sales of passenger cars and SUVs and commercial vehicles in 2008 were 791,223—down 5.3% compared to 2007—giving hybrids a 0.64% share of the new light-duty vehicle market.
The passenger car segment ended the year down 6.3% (596,765 units) compared to 2007; SUV sales were down 1.9% (194,458 units).
Toyota’s Prius model posted the strongest sales growth of any hybrid vehicle on the local market in 2008, with a record 3,413 sold, almost 7.5 per cent higher than 2007. This figure also accounted for more than two-thirds of all hybrids in Australia sold last year.
Honda sold 813 units of its Civic Hybrid.
January 8, 2009 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
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Posted by: Dave R | January 08, 2009 at 12:34 PM
Australia is a low volume Right Hand Drive market and there are only 3 Hybrid models sold in Australia which is why 70% of those sold are for just one model, the Prius. The other 2 are a Honda Hybrid which was withdrwn from the US market earlier this year due to poor sales and a niche market Lexus 400h.
Most US Hybrid sales figures are smudged by 'mild' hybrids sold by the domestic manufacturers, mostly SUVs who's sales had tanked. Mild hybrids are even more questionable than non-plug-in hybrids as they don't even have an EV mode. It seems if an SUV turns itself off at the traffic lights it's a hybrid. I'd call that a 'starter motor'.
The biggest sellers in Australia are domenstic made cars that mostly have 4 lt 6 cyl engines. Cars with 1.5 Lt engines, like the Prius, do not sell well in Australia.
Posted by: Paul | January 08, 2009 at 04:08 PM
Posted by: dursun | January 08, 2009 at 09:35 PM
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0.64% market share? That's pretty damn low. About 4 times lower than the market share hybrids have here in the US.
What kind of vehicles are the Aussies buying?