From January thru September this year, Chevrolet has delivered 3,895 units of Volt and Japanese automaker Nissan was able to sell 7,199 units of Leaf.

A private firm which look into the buying habits of car buyers said that the car manufacturers benefit a lot when vehicle launches generate buzz on social media networks and the press in general.

Another significant figure to look at is that around 78% of people who bought Volt did not have a Chevrolet at the time they bought the plug-in vehicle. This means that the Chevrolet Volt helps bring customers which buy other brands into Chevy showrooms. The plug-in bring in new buyers more than twice than the other cars of the brand.

General Motors also shared some information about the profile of their market. According to GM, about 37% of consumers who buy the Volt are residents of the state of California. It also shows that about 7% of the trade-ins to buy a Volt is a the hybrid car of Toyota, the Prius.

There are also German branded vehicles being traded in for the Chevrolet Volt. Combining for 6% of trade ins are the Audi A4, Volkswagen Jetta, and the 3 Series of BMW.

The trend for the Nissan Leaf is also the same. Ninety percent of the buyers of the Leaf did not own a Nissan at the time of the purchase. About 18% of consumers trade in their Toyota Prius and another 38% trades in another model of Toyota.

The survey spotlights the way the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt are bringing in new customers for their respective brands after they are officially launched to the market.

Toyota is aiming for a million drivetrains using a hybrid setup this year to run the Prius and the Auris HSD. The Japanese car manufacturer is not really looking in the direction of new designs for their upcoming hybrids especially with the good reliability and performance they are getting from their 1.8L small hybrids.

The powetrain executives of Toyota confirmed that they will be launching new hybrid units that will tap into the flexibility of their current hybrid technology to give the cars sporty characteristics.

The powertrain guru of Toyota, Gerald Killman, explained that they do not need to design new hybrid systems when their current systems can supply what they need due to its adaptability and flexibility.

It seems the rumors buzzing before are true that Toyota is going for a hybrid system that can rival the Honda CR-Z. The concept car FT-CH which took the spotlight during the Detroit Auto Show last January might be a good preview of how the upcoming car might look.

It is still uncertain if the new hybrid units will take the Prius name or will they create a new one to market.

“Toyota is set to launch more cars that use no gas at all. With the green campaign all over the world, Toyota rides with the environmental demand by coming up with cars that use only compressed natural gas car fuel (CNG)”

Toyota Goes Green!