Toyota Hybrid Sales Hit 1M Mark
Toyota announced that its combined US Prius sales have topped the one million mark. The company began selling the Prius in the US nine years ago and reached the milestone mark earlier this model year. The company will be introducing its redesigned Prius to the US market shortly and will introduce a plug-in hybrid version in 2010.
Right now, however, the company reports that its February sales slid by nearly 40% over sales figures from last February. Sales of the Prius were down by one-third over last year's sales tallies. The company has also cut production in both its US and UK facilities. Earlier this year, Toyota halted final construction on its new Blue Springs, MS plant. Originally, the facility was to produce Toyota trucks and SUVs, but the company announced it would re-tool the plant to produce Priuses instead. The company has not yet announced when it will activate the new plant.
The industry-wide global sales slump has not prevented Toyota from opening new markets, however. The company announced that it will begin sales of the Prius in India in 2010. Toyota is in talks with the Indian government that may lead to a local production plant. If local production isn't an option, Toyota may not be able to price the vehicle competitively enough to drive sales in that country.
Toyota will face increasingly stiff competition in the hybrid market in most major sales regions with the introduction of the Honda Insight, priced at slightly less than $20,000. In addition, several Chinese manufacturers say they will be bringing low-cost hybrid vehicles to the market within the next few years.
When gas prices topped $4 per gallon, hybrid vehicles were nowhere around, but with the sharp decline in gas prices, the number of new and used hybrid vehicles available is mushrooming. AutoNation, the country's largest used car locator, reports that it currently has more than 600,000 hybrids from all manufacturers in its inventory, and that the selling price for hybrid vehicles has dropped by nearly one-quarter.
The major factor in hybrid sales may be the cost of gasoline. In a recent survey, about 80% of respondents said they were considering a hybrid purchase to save money on gasoline. Only 20% of the respondents in that survey said they would purchase a hybrid primarily for ecological reasons.
Photo Credit: Gregory Williams
