Auto Knight

GM Not Selling Many Hybrids

by Darren

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

GM has been selling hybrid vehicles at a snail’s pace. The company had been hoping that hybrids would move quicker, especially their full-size SUV model.

GM sold 843 hybrids in the first quarter–655 of them the Two Mode hybrid versions of its full-sized Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon SUVs. The rest are mild hybrids: the Saturn Aura Green Line, Saturn Vue Green Line and Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid.

Sales are slow because the Malibu Hybrid and the Two Mode SUVs are just entering the market, says a GM spokesman. “We talked about a model-year volume of 8,000 to 12,000 for the Tahoe and Yukon, and that hasn’t changed,” says GM spokesman Brian Corbett. “Generally hybrid vehicle sales tend to be a little slower initially compared to regular vehicles. We’re expected to increase sales as awareness increases.”

Compounding troubles, analysts say that GM hasn’t done a great job of marketing the cars. An obvious problem could also be that going green costs more money. In many cases, consumers will pa $3,000 to $5,000 more for a hybrid vehicle.