Torrance, CA, June1, 2007 – Record May sales for American Honda Motor Co., Inc., weren’t enough to save its Accord hybrid sedan.
When announcing that only 439 Accord Hybrids were sold last month, a decline of over 18% from last year, Honda officials were reported to have put the brakes on the gas-electric vehicle. Overall Accord sales of 31,915 units were also down 17%.
This leaves Toyota as the king of the hybrids. Its Prius attracted over 24,000 buyers last month and the hybrid version of the most popular car in America, the Camry, garnered 10,165 sales. When you add the 1927 hybrid sales from the Lexus Division the total tops 36,000 for the month, up 102% from last year. This walloped Honda’s combined sales of its hybrid Accord and Civic which tipped the scales at 4959.
What probably caused the rout is the fact that Toyota and Honda have chosen different hybrid technology and Toyota’s list prices are less expensive and rated as more fuel-efficient. Hybrid mania has helped Toyota to record its all-time best-ever sales of 269,023 vehicles for the month, an increase of 9.7 percent over May 2006. Its former all-time best-ever record was 242,675 units in March 2007.
While Honda hasn’t been able to capitalize on hybrids its been riding the small car trend. It reported total overall May sales (including Lexus and Accura) of 145,367, up from 141,810 in 2006, breaking the previous May record set in 2004. The Honda Division posted record May sales of 129,447, up from May 2006 results of 125,639.
"Small is big right now," said Dick Colliver, executive vice president of American Honda. "Smaller vehicles have become more attractive for multiple reasons and we expect this trend to continue for the time being."
Honda Division's new May record was bolstered by all-time record sales of the compact Civic and subcompact Fit and a new May record for the CR-V crossover SUV - the best-selling SUV in the U.S. Civic sales of 39,993, up 32.6 percent for the month, shattered its all-time record of 36,533 set in August 2001.
While small compared to the rival Prius, Civic Hybrid sales of 4,520, were up 50.4 percent, and broke the car’s all-time record of 4,146 set in August 2005.
Record May CR-V sales increased by 35.9 percent to 19,513. Fit results of 5,361 achieved a new all-time record.
Additional large volume Honda Division products for May include the Accord, 31,915; Odyssey, 15,235; and Pilot, 10,133. Ridgeline and Element volume respectively totaled 3,600 and 3,187. Year-to-date, Honda Division sales of 551,220 are up 2.5 percent with total car sales increasing by 3.9 percent and light truck sales increasing by 0.7 percent.
Acura Division sales totaled 15,920. The recent introductions of the completely redesigned MDX luxury SUV and all-new RDX crossover SUV pushed Acura light truck sales up 82.6 percent to 6,635. The MDX posted strong May sales of 4,623, up 27.2 percent versus last year and up 7.1 percent for the year on a DSR basis.
Buyers clearly believe that “small is beautiful” but Honda may have to rethink its hybrid line if it wants to avoid another wipeout as it rides the gas-electric wave.
For more information about Honda vehicles, please visit
www.honda.com .
For more information about Acura vehicles, please visit
www.acura.com .
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