Cash for clunkers drives Prius sales
Cash for clunkers worked?According to the National Transportation Safety Administration the 'Cash for Clunkers' program led to a sales surge in small vehicles and hybrid cars, particularly the Toyota Prius. The Prius was the 4th most purchased vehicle via the clunker program.
Now, I'm not calling the clunker program a success, but last week I predicted it would NOT lead to a spike in hybrid sales. It appears I was wrong.
I'm still not a big fan of the program, but I do believe the program has demonstrated the power of consumer-based incentives versus corporate-based incentives.
Labels: Hybrid Vehicles, toyota prius
posted by Dahcredyns at
2:01 PM
13 Comments:
i also am shocked that the average Joe who has a 10+ year old car would actually be conscious enough to WANT a hybrid of any kind!! Wow is there home for Humans after all ???
Whatever the reason its great news for a great car company!
Prius was number four on the list of cars purchased by people trading in clunkers.
It shows you that the price gap between what Toyota is charging and the price consumers are willing to pay for a Prius is about $4500.
If you look at the whole list, small cars were absolutely the top choice by the public for this program.
It probably is cost related, as people owning clunkers are probably lower income and smaller cars are lower cost with the higher mpgs also a cost savings.
If that is true the program is better than I thought. The program is self-selecting lower income people and those lower income people are going to choose cheaper to buy (read smaller) and cheaper to run (read fuel efficient) vehicles.
More of this, please!
Dahc,
You must admit that the program was success. Though we were all we skeptical about it. But it exceeded all expectations. First, it boosted hybrid sales more than sales of conventional gasoline vehicles. Second, an average efficiency improvement was about 50-60%.
There were only 3 mid-size cars on the top 10 list.
Toyota Prius (#4)
Toyota Camry (#5)
Dodge Caliber (#8)
Prius is the top mid-size pick!
Dahc,
You make a good point about consumer based incentives being better than corporate based incentives.
I would add that in the US, the most effective consumer based incentives in terms of energy consumption will be those targeting lower income folks and not middle income folks.
Why? Middle income folks are the ones who buy SUVs when given the chance!! Lower income folks buy Civics and Yari and Corollas when given the chance, and when not given the chance have to buy 1990's Detroit gas guzzlers or old small cars that are starting to lose their fuel efficiency and pollution control abilities.
alcatholic ,
I agree this shows how much more effective consumer based incentives are than corporate ones.
In a consumer based incentive, every penny is spent on the intended product. In a corporate incentive, who knows how the money is spent.
Too bad we didn't do this with the bailout. If we had spent the $700 billion by giving it to the consumers to pay their mortages all of the bad loans would have been paid off and nobody would have been foreclosed on. Instead we gave the $700 billion to the banks and left the consumer high and dry.....
lb-
That's why I had to make the post. Without doubt the program worked far better than I anticipated.
obviously, i like the consumer-based incentive angle, and i agree that it is especially relevant to focus on poor and working class american with such incentives.
i'd rather get away from this blaming and taxing the rich talk - not that such talk isn't deserved - but that we focus more on giving consumers the ability to make purchases that help themselves. that should help straighten out the corruption in the corporate/legislative connection in a fair way.
such a path, as smurf suggests, I also believe is a better way of approaching our recovery, versus just giving Wall Street all the money.
i know it's probably not as simple as that, but i still like that kind of thinking.
Hey, I'm one of those Average Joes who turned in a '93 Explorer for a Prius. Full disclosure, though: I never would have bought an SUV...it was given to me as a surprise from a relative. I've been saving up for years to buy a hybrid and looking forward to dumping that Explorer. Cash for Clunkers was a golden opportunity that came at the right time for me.
How about "Hybrids for Hummers?"
"hybrids for Hummers"?
Meaning the Prius is junk and the Hummer the better path forward?
Or foreign hybrids for American Hummers?
Too many assumptions required for me to respond.
Yet, ironically, buyers like 'average joe' that have bought a Prius are defeating much of the intent of cash for clunkers - which was largely sold as a program to spur the US auto industry.
Maybe average joes actually have far more sense than the government?!
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