Bad news for anyone thinking of buying a hybrid any time soon:
Battery shortage hurts hybrid sales
With gasoline at $4 a gallon, the market is screaming for more hybrids. But sales of hybrids dropped significantly in May.
Battery shortages are crimping supplies of the Ford Escape Hybrid and Toyota Prius, two of the top-selling hybrids.
Prius sales dropped 37.5 percent in May to 15,011 compared with May 2007. Combined sales of the Escape Hybrid and its stablemate, the Mercury Mariner Hybrid, dropped 26.0 percent to 2,378 last month.
General Motors' big SUV hybrids are not selling well because of their high prices and limited fuel savings.............................
http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl...8/newsletter01