[Quietcars] Hybrid sales: 1 million Toyota and 100,000 Ford

[Robert Wilson]

Hi,

I came across this article in the New York Times, which may require registration to read:

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/toyota-ford-reach-hybrid-milestones/

"Two milestones were reached this week in the annals of hybrid vehicles.
Toyota announced that it had sold its one millionth hybrid in the
United States. And Ford has produced its 100,000th.
. . .
It took Ford five years to reach that mark. But the company predicts
that future milestones will occur much more quickly, because it is
adding the Fusion and Mercury Milan hybrids to its lineup this spring.
. . .
It took a decade, however, [for Toyota rjw] to get to this milestone. The Prius
hybrid went on sale in the United States in July 2000 (after having
come out in Japan in 1997), and was followed in later years by other
hybrid versions of Toyota models, like the Highlander S.U.V. and the
Camry sedan, and Lexus models like the RX S.U.V.
The company said that worldwide hybrid sales passed 1.7 million in January (1.2 million of which have been Prius sales).”

The Toyota, Ford and a very small number of GM hybrids are the only ones that have an electric vehicle mode. In contrast, the Honda and most GM hybrids mostly use 'auto stop' of the engine when they come to a halt and have very little or no electric vehicle mode. Still this benchmark gives a basis of estimate that can be used to calculate how many hybrid electric miles are driven each year.

Assuming about 90% of all Toyota and Ford hybrids are still in service that would leave about 1 million on the road. The Environmental Protection Agency uses 15,000 miles per year as the average, which suggests about 15 billion hybrid miles per year. 

Bob Wilson



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