Toyota has record sales month, Ford’s fall

updated 7:19 p.m. ET June 1, 2007

DETROIT - The gas-electric hybrid car, once the domain of your granola-crunching, environmentally conscious neighbor, moved into the mainstream last month as $3 per gallon gasoline helped to nearly triple Toyota Prius sales.

Toyota Motor Corp. sold just over 24,000 Priuses in May, boosting the car into ninth place among all vehicles for the month and cracking the list of 10 top sellers for the first time, the company said.

Prius sales helped Toyota post a U.S. sales gain of 14.1 percent in May compared to the same month last year as gas prices also pushed up sales of its Corolla, Yaris and Camry models.

General Motors Corp., which also said it benefited from high gas prices in some segments, reported that sales rose 9.7 percent, helping to boost industry sales by 5 percent.

All major automakers except Ford Motor Co. reported sales gains for May on Friday as the automotive market rebounded a bit from lackluster months earlier in the year.

Toyota, which has been gaining market share in the U.S., posted its highest monthly total ever in May. It sold 269,023 Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles, topping its previous monthly record of 242,675 set in March. Car sales rose 16.2 percent, while light truck sales, including the Tundra pickup, rose 10.9 percent.

The Prius, which gets an estimated 55 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving, helped push Toyota’s U.S. sales above Ford Motor Co., which saw a decline of 6.9 percent as it continued to cut low-profit sales to rental companies.

Nearly 15 percent of Toyota’s sales were hybrids, which has the company convinced that their appeal has moved beyond buyers wishing to make a statement about global warming.

Randy Pflughaupt, Toyota’s vice president of marketing, said Prius buyers are now more diverse, attracting those who want better gas mileage or even a third family car.

Because of the gas prices and some option discounts last month, a buyer can earn back the premium paid for the hybrid in as little as five months, Toyota officials said during a conference call with reporters and industry analysts.

“It’s really quite a diverse lineup of folks that are selecting Prius,” Pflughaupt said.

But some buyers in May didn’t seem to be affected by fuel prices, with pickup truck sales rising 3.5 percent.

“It was almost like a pick-and-choose sort of impact,” said Jesse Toprak, senior analyst for the Edmunds.com auto Web site.

Paul Ballew, GM’s executive director of global market and industry analysis, said that since 2005, several trends have emerged when gasoline prices rise in the spring, and this year was no different.

Buyers tend to shift from trucks to cars, luxury car sales tend to weaken, small and mid-sized car sales rise and people tend to choose four-cylinder powertrains over larger engines, he said.

The industrywide mix of cars and trucks was about equal in May, and trucks normally account for about 55 percent of the market, according to Ballew.

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