Toyota Aims to Sell 180k Prius in U.S. in '09
Can you say price war? How else is Toyota going to shift 180k Priora when the market for hybrids has tanked (Prius sales down 44.7 percent in December) and Honda’s Insight has arrived to do battle? In their best year, Toyota shifted 181,221 gas – electric hybrids. The obvious answer: they’re not– barring a sudden recovery of the American automotive market and an increase in fuel prices. (Federal gas tax hike?) Could be. As far as the Insight’s concerned, ToMoCo isn’t. US Prez Jim Lentz told Ward’s Auto there’s room in the market for three hybrids. “You’re going to have Honda at the entry end. You’re going to have Prius kind of in the center, and you’re going to have (the) Lexus (HS 250h) on the luxury side,” he says. “It gives consumers clear choices, a large array of hybrid products.” So much for the Ford Fusion or any GM hybrid, then. Sad; but true?
More by Robert Farago
Comments
Join the conversation
Wow. This got boring real fast. The original story is about marketing (by Toyota's prez) and perceived market share (also by the same guy). Everyone here is talking about batteries and hybrid tech - which is in the process of evolving so none of this is relevant (or in some cases, not even true). The owners of hybrids and electrics are all lab rats for a new era. Just like the folks who bought those little kerosene runabouts 100 years ago. They didn't wax BS on kerosene vs. whale oil. They just drove 'em 'til the wheels fell off. Literally. On to the next topic, boys.
he wrote : Wow. This got boring real fast. Well don't you fret now Semi. This being the internet means that something light and fluffy is merely a mouse click away. May I suggest the Truth about Booth Babes editorial ? Or maybe you were looking for the " The BS About Cars " site and found yourself here.. he also wrote The original story is about marketing (by Toyota’s prez) and perceived market share (also by the same guy). In fact it was skid666 who derailed the thread by casting aspersions on the Prius HV battery (which are unfounded) and insinuating that would be a cause for those sales figure projections to be off. My post just agreed with a couple of previous posts made by M1EK except that I am not sure that the sample size for the 8 year old cars is large enough yet to be totally confident that calendar effects are going to be minimal. However I think it is safe enough to inject a mainstream Lexus Prius into that brand. And they may even provide superior multi-link suspension just like they've done with the Camry platform for the ES300-350 series. Unfortunately this topic is about to time out. Perhaps next time because there hasn't been any chance for discourse on the technical specs just released for the Gen III. T2
"By clinging to a one-hit-wonder like the Prius, Toyota is planning its business by looking in the rear-view mirror just as GM did for years." Hyperbole where it's due. The Prius is not a one-hit wonder, as of now it's just a single model of (mostly) uncompromising design towards fuel efficiency. And the drivetrain is used in other vehicles offered by Toyota. It sells better than many of the vehicles GM offers. If you looked at retail sales only, it might outsell everything. The Prius doesn't have a 600lb battery... that's part of the genius of the thing; Toyota figured out what would make the most sense in electrical powertrain enhancement without building a car that was too expensive to sell or too badly compromised in terms of performance or utility. Everything we do, as we go along, involves more complexity (or, at the very least, more complex fabrication). Look at a television. The circuitry was, once upon a time, quite simple and many problems could actually be fixed by a tolerably smart end-user. Now? The schematic involves parts that have far circuits than the original TVs did in toto... and forget repairing it. But it is better, in many ways. Everything vehicles is a compromise between various design goals. The Prius does pretty well at a couple of them, at the expense of the others. And it's affordable. Contrast Toyota's efforts to commercialize a hybrid car as a sales and profit success with the Volt. GM gets a putative advantage in some electric range but at what price? Twice as expensive, maximum capacity of four, very likely a small trunk, very likely a short cruising range, owners must be able to plug it in to get full effect... There's lots of reasons not to buy this car; unless GM turns the program around, somehow, it's going to flop. Another contract with GM; once the vehicle is on the road, it's time to improve it. The next version is better in several ways and appears worse in none. Parallel hybrids, like the Prius and Fusion, might eventually run out of gas but, right now, it looks like they can be a commercial success. Certainly, there's nothing else on the road that's wringing over 40mpg out of gasoline.