In spite of the earthquake and Tsunami that devastated Japan last March and which deeply affected the country’s automobile production capabilities, Toyota remains confident that US sales of the Prius will outperform those of 2010.
The lack of inventory, with many dealers reporting as little as one day’s worth of Prius cars on their lots, led to a whopping 61% drop in July sales in the US, which is the lowest since 2004. And that’s significant because the US accounts for almost half of the all Prius models sold worldwide, which makes it Toyota’s most important market for its compact hybrid.
Moreover, even with these shortages, the Prius remains Toyota’s 3rd best-selling car, behind the Corolla and the Camry.
Before the earthquake, Toyota’s target for the Prius in 2011 was to exceed the 2007 record of 181,221 unit, but the disruption in production has made that impossible. However, according to Toyota’s senior vice president for US sales, the Prius can still exceed 2010’s 140,928 cars. And that’s because the production of both the Prius and the Lexus hybrids is coming back on line faster than initially predicted.
Moreover, the Prius family will soon expand to include three more models: the plug-in Prius, the Prius V estate and, later, the Prius C compact car. Toyota’s US president of sales, Jim Lentz, went as far as predicting that “by the end of this decade, the Prius nameplate will be the number one passenger car nameplate in the industry”.
Via Bloomberg
8 Comments:
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Gas prices will have to be ten dollars a gallon before I buy something as ugly as the prius. Though I do realize this is toyota life line as far as products and without it, I think toyota would with out any doubt be in a much worse shape then they are now.
lol @ anonymous 1 and isn't that the truth.
One of the best cars in the business definitely among cars like Camry, Corolla, Accord, Civic, Beetle, Golf, Ferrari 360.
If only Toyota could say this was one of the best cars for 2011 like the 2011 Hyundai Sonata Turbo and 2012 Hyundai Sonata hybrid, the 2011 Hyundai Elantra, The 2011 ford fusion, The 2012 Ford focus, The 2011 Buick regal, the 2011 Chevy volt and 2011 Chevy cruze or even the 2011 Nissan leaf ugly or not is still worlds better then this out dated toyota with minor updates at best. These are the cars that are leading the pact while cars like the prius is in the back and rightfully where it belongs with all the rest of toyota crap waiting on all those recalls
lol @ anon 4 , you seem pretty desperate to paint a pretty picture for Toyota. I like how BTW you threw in a Honda there and a VW here to hide how basis your post is for just Toyota. What a Toyota troll you must be. Yes those cars you talk about from Toyota were indeed great cars while they all were n the recall list indeed.
I rather drive any thing but this unemotional blob of shapeless mess. If I want to save gas, I'll buy a bicycle.
@ anon 6
^^^^
That guy certainly is correct. He is not lying by the way. These cars are indeed the best and has sold millions of units to date. Nothing false about that.
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