Late last year we blogged about how close the race was for the top selling hybrid SUV of 2009. If you read it, you might recall that the Ford Escape hybrid was in the lead but barely managed to hold on to the top spot. The Lexus RX 400h was nearly 20% behind Ford with only three months to go but made a strong push to finish only about 300 vehicles short of first place (a 2% difference). And the Toyota Highlander hybrid also closed strong, rounding out the top 3. You can read the thriller yourself at 2009 Top Selling Hybrid SUVs.

Here we are more than four months later and the numbers are now in for the first quarter of 2010. I thought it would be more fun to tally hybrid SUV sales at the end of Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 - rather than keeping our readers in suspense until the next snowfall. And, to make things even more exciting - I’ll try to recap monthly sales to see if this will even become a race.

January 2010 hybrid car sales jumped out of the gate in positive territory and were more than 10% higher than January of 2009. Lexus kept its momentum going into the new year by selling more than 1,000 of their RX 450h models. The hybrid Ford Escape grabbed control of second place, but was a distant second with less than 650 sport utilities sold. Toyota remained in 3rd with just more than 500 Highlander hybrids sold during the first month. No other hybrid s.u.v. even came close to the leaders with the Chevy Tahoe reaching about 150 sales for the 4th position.

With national gas prices up more than 75 cents in February of 2010 (compared to February, 2009) it seemed that hybrid sales were ready for a breakout. Unfortunately, bad news about the all time hybrid sales leader (yes, the Prius) really shook the entire green automotive industry. Recalls and investigations made headlines during most of the month and while Toyota really felt the pain, their luxury line fared better. The RX 450 was the top selling hybrid SUV in February with nearly 900 out the door. The green Escape closed the gap a bit with over 700 sales, while the fuel sipping Highlander continued its nosedive tallying only 340 sales for the entire month.

March was a much better period for hybrid SUV sales, in part due to gas prices continuing to rise - but also because February’s black hybrid cloud began to lift. Lexus made it three in a row selling 1,250 of their 450h’s. Ford also had a big jump, but still couldn’t Escape being the bridesmaid with 1,170 hybrid models sold. Toyota limped into last (in what again figures to be a 3 SUV race) by selling fewer than 600 Highlanders. At the end of Q1: 450h=3,150, Escape=2,520, Highlander=1,450.

Stay tuned for the next round of updates!