Europe vs. US

Curious developments. Honda withdrew the Insight from the German market and has no plans to introduce the Civic hybrid [1]. Toyota does market the Prius in Germany [2], but I wonder if it possesses any significant presence. That is, the diesel path that the PNGV was initiated to secure in the states may have taken hold in Europe.

Meanwhile, in the states the Prius is selling like hotcakes and prospects for the Insight are increasingly grim. (Actually, I do not know that hotcakes sell; so abhorring dead metaphors let me try, “The Prius is selling like funnel cakes on a long day at the carnival.”) The US figures are below [3,4].

March02vs01 Year to date 02vs01
PRIUS 1,763 1,378 +32.7% 5,198 3,874 +35.9

Insight 232 424 -43.3% 690 1,058 -33.9%

Interestingly, Honda does not break out numbers for its Civic models, so it may be difficult to distinguish between future sales of civic hybrids.

Cheers, nathan
1. <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/honda-hybrid/message/3787>
2. <http://www.toyota.de/>
3. <http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020402/latu114_1.html>
4. <http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020402/latu089_1.html>