Auto sales in 2011 turned out to be pretty good for most automakers, including each of the Big 3. For the first time since 1988, all three domestic brands . The combined market share of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler came in at 47.2 percent, which was a significant rise from 45.1 percent in 2010.
Things werent quite as rosy for Japanese automakers Toyota and Honda, as both sold fewer cars in 2011 than they did in the year earlier. These automakers have led the way with hybrid technologies, with Honda introducing the first mass-produced hybrid automobile sold in the United States with the Insight in the 2000 model year. Toyota followed seven months later with the introduction of their Prius.
And for the second straight year, , despite the whopping increase in choices consumers have to pick from. Hybrid sales peaked in 2009. Back then, there were 17 different hybrid vehicles on the market. Now there are more than 30, yet hybrid vehicle sales decreased by 2.2 percent overall in 2011.
Hybrids sales have decreased, but diesel appears to be making a comeback in the U.S. market. Sales of new clean diesel automobiles in the U.S. increased by an impressive 27.4 percent in 2011 over 2010. An
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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