Hybrid vehicle sales steady in August; Prius crowned champ again *UPDATE

It’s that time of month again. August 2011 sales in the U.S. have been tallied, including, of course, hybrid vehicles. Once again, it’s worth at least a mention that quake-related vehicle production issues have more or less subsided, so output of most hybrids manufactured over in Japan is roughly back on track.

This time ’round, Toyota Prius sales came in at 9,491 units, up tremendously from the 7,907 units sold in July, but far below the 11,799 Priuses sold back in August of 2010. The Honda Insight edged out the Honda CR-Z, with 961 and 745 units sold, respectively. That compares well to the 987 Insights and 878 CR-Zs sold in July. Meanwhile, sales of the Honda Civic Hybrid slumped, coming in at a depressing 106 units, down dramatically from the 311 gas-electric Civics sold in July.

Luxury automaker Lexus reports that sales of the CT 200h rebounded from the dismal 240 units sold in June, ending the month of August with total sales of 2,087. That’s quite a step up from the 1,553 CT200hs sold in July. The slow-selling Lexus HS 250h fared okay with sales of 284 units.

Overall, Toyota-Lexus posted August sales of 13,273 hybrid vehicles, a decrease of 17.4 percent compared to August of 2010. Still, it’s a decent improvement over last month’s 11,047 units. Lexus’ hybrids accounted for 3,238 of those cars, leaving Toyota with 10,035 hybrids sold. Overall, the automaker’s total August 2011 sales were 129,483 vehicles. We’ll update this post as more sales numbers (particularly from Ford) become available. For the plug-in vehicle sales numbers, click here.

UPDATE: Ford’s numbers are in, with the Blue Oval reporting Fusion Hybrid sales of 216, Lincoln MKZ Hybrid sales at 491 and sales of the gas-electric Escape at 563 units for the month of August. Meanwhile, sales of the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid checked in at an impressive 4,136 units.