I'm beginning to think our country might have a higher percentage of 'early adopters' than our EU cousins. Of course our Japanese friends put us to shame as a higher percentage of their population appear to live at 'the bleeding edge.' Bob Wilson
They only started selling well in EU in past 2 years, especially this year when we have 2 mainstream models... In any case, USA, Japan and EU are probaboy 98% of Toyota HSD sales anyway
Its the american market that put the money behind development. The US was buying more hybrids than Japan from 2001-2008. The american hybrid market stalled there until last year. The Japanese hybrid market exploded in 2009. I would not say they live at the bleeding edge, but it is a captive market,. The tax structure with both gas taxes and car taxes are much more favorable for hybrids than in the US. The Japanese market is much smaller though, so as a percentage hybrids are taking a much bigger slice. If you are looking at non kei cars,, then the choice is toyota, honda, or nissan. Toyota had half the market last year, which helps explain the hybrid sales. Toyota and hybrid seem to go hand and hand over there. These were written when Japan bypassed the US as the biggest hybrid market. Prius No. 1 in Japan sales as green interest grows - USATODAY.com Japan Hybrid Sales Bypass US - HybridCars.com A gas tax might help increase the us hybrid sales percent.
That's crazy talk ... What would that do to U.S. sales of RV's ... Quads ... Wave Runners ... Pontoon Party boats ... SUV's ... ski boats ... 5th wheel toy haulers ... 4x4's and the like. Don't we have a God given right to buy the biggest guzzler we can afford to feed? Why ... such an event of taxation might actually drive folks to start demanding we build (gasp!!) world class mass transportation!
Just add a penny to the gas tax . . . problem solved. Hummm, and offset the Federal Highway Funds to states proportional to their hybrid vehicle tax. Bob Wilson
Three cheers to Toyota. I don't think Toyota gets enough credit for what they have accomplished. Well, if they meet their US sales goals, it won't be due to any help from Virginia politics.
Year on Year Q1 world wide Toyota plus Lexus hybrids 2013: 332,100 2012: 329,000 Source toyota The US made up some of the drop in Japan. It will be interesting to see how hybrids do in virginia this year, as it is one of the better states, but ... at least according to the old figures - it lags far behind california which sells over 25% of the hybrids in the US. The other big states are Florida, Texas, and New York in that order. Virginia typically sells between 4%-5% hybrids.
Yes I will be very interested to see if VA loses position on the state Prii rankings. But there is some repeal effort getting going, so no one thinks fee permanent yet. If I can find a pro-bono lawyer I will sue them myself.
