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What to make of the fact that, in 2010, the bestselling vehicles in America were two pickup trucks, the Ford F-150 and the Chevrolet Silverado? The Ford (a sales leader for more than 20 years) racked up sales of well over half a million, and made a 28 percent jump from 2009. The Silverado and its sister model, the GMC Sierra, together did 499,929. That's a million trucks!


For the year, U.S. auto sales reached 11.6 million, which looks relatively good (certainly compared to 2009), but then you are forced to realize that something like 18 million cars were sold in China last year. And it was still the second-worst sales year in almost 30 years.


If you're looking for a green trend in American car buying, it's hard to spot it in these results. Sales of crossovers have largely supplanted that of big, less efficient SUVs, but there's no huge swing to hybrids and economy cars. The best-selling car in 2010 was the Toyota Camry (327,804 sales), trailed by the Honda Accord (311,381). The best seller in Japan is the Prius -- the company sold 315,000 of them on the domestic market last year.


The Prius is Japan's biggest sales success in two decades. We "get" the Prius, too (and that's why they're expanding the lineup with a minivan), but the Japanese pay twice as much for gas.


The common wisdom is that the return of $4 a gallon gas will cause another swing to fuel sippers (as it did in 2008), but it's $3.25 at the corner filling station now without raising too much excitement. It will be interesting to see if the Detroit Auto Show, which I will be attending next week, is as green as the last two years--or will those F-150 sales loom large? My guess is that the electric vehicles (EVs) are here to stay.

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2010 Was a Mixed Bag for Green Cars was originally published by thedailygreen.com blog post feed. Read the full story by clicking here.