Shift to Hybrids and Fuel Efficient Vehicles Accelereates Strongly in September

TickerMine’s practice of repeating surveys is beginning to produce interesting insights into many industries but particularly the auto market and buyer trends and habits.

While high oil has been well documented and the impacts on truck sales focused on because of their profit contributions to the auto manufacturers, we believe a trend has been missed.

TickerMine has conducted six surveys on Toyota dealerships in 2008. Camry’s and Corolla’s have been the top sellers in the the first five. Fuel efficient cars to be sure and the first step away from trucks and SUV’s. However for the first time in September we found that the Prius Hybrid is the top seller according to 30% of dealers we spoke with.

Prius is Best-Seller at 30% of Toyota Dealerships

Posted at 09/23/08 23:09 PM

Toyota dealerships across the U.S. reported that the Prius is their best-selling vehicle, according to TickerMine’s latest poll. The hybrid vehicle was a best-seller for 30% of dealerships surveyed. The Camry was the next highest seller (27%), followed by the Corolla (18%). Forty-two percent of dealerships are offering special deals on trucks, given the falloff in sales due to high gas prices. In most cases these deals consist of 0% or low APR or cash rebates. Fifty-five percent of dealerships polled are offering free satellite radio from XM Satellite or Sirius Satellite. Fifty-two percent say sales have gone up in the last month.

The move to mass purchasing of hybrid is a dramatic shift in u.s. auto buyers preferences. TickerMine will continue to track this trend, but we see the shift as being a 12-month cycle of “no trucks” - “small cars” - “hybrids/electrics / CNG’s”.  We believe that the final three months of 2008 could be the phase for dramatic adoption of hybrid’s and other alternative fuel vehicles.