AD&P; > December 2015 > TALK > Marginal > Gary S. Vasilash > gsv@autofeldguide.com
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to year-earlier fgures. The vehicle
is down 23% year-to-date. Speak-
ing of the Prius, it was down 13.5%
in October and is of 11.6% for the
year. (Although it is worth noting
that it is still the dominant vehicle
in the hybrid category: Through
October, 179,001 Prius models have
been delivered, compared with a
mere 23,693 C-MAXes. And to put
that 179,001 into context, you can
add together the sales of the Toyota
Avalon (55,304) and every avail-
able Scion model (total: 50,285)
and still not reach the sales of the
Prius. Or, you can take the sales
of the C-MAX (23,693) and add in
the sales of the Fiesta (56,032) and
Taurus (46,601) and still fall short
of the 179,001 units (126,326)).
Still, directionally it seems as
though alternative powertrains are
not doing as well as people might
have thought they would be. Chevy
Volt sales are of 14.9% for the year
(15,979). And while Nissan can get
bragging rights for the all-electric
LEAF sales being up 35% for the
year, realize that the total number
is 24,411, which is fewer than the
number of the largely mocked
Nissan Juke, which has had sales of
34,021 units through October.
According to the EIA, the highest
average retail price for a gallon
of gas in the U.S. was $4.11 in
July 2008. And we can remember
what was going on in 2008 and
2009. Suddenly those truck sales
weren't what they once were. In fact,
sales overall quickly spiraled into the
tank. While that is a memory that
few of us want to remember, it is a
memory that few of us should forget.
Without a doubt, the global OEMs
are doing a solid job in terms of
increasing the fuel efciency of
their feets. According to the Uni-
versity of Michigan's Transportation
Research Institute ( umtri.umich.
edu ), CAFE performance has con-
sistently increased annually from
model year 2008 through model
year 2014 in the U.S., going from
25.5 mpg to 30.8 mpg.
But let's say that the planners
assume that gas prices are going
to continue at a low level, not
increase. What is the likelihood
that they're going to be proposing