With gas at almost $4.00 a gallon across the US, May should have been a month of record-breaking Prius sales. Not so, thanks to Mother Nature. Toyota Prius sales were down 47.4% compared to May 2010 due entirely to a constricted supply line following the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The Prius sold a meager 6,924 units compared to 14,248 last May.

Toyota just announced an increase in the MSRP of just about the full lineup of Toyota, Scion, and Lexus models, including the Prius. Effective for vehicles with scheduled May arrivals from Japan, the Prius will increase in price by $470 across the board. This increase looks to be attributed to Toyota's forecast of increasing production costs following the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan earlier this month, but even North American-produced vehicles are seeing between a 1.2 and 2.2 percent price increase.

The new pricing will be as follows (effective May 2011):

Is the Prius in the middle of a dispute between China and Japan over the detention of a fishing boat captain? With China's control over the required rare earth minerals that go into production of the Prius, it very well may be.

... at least in Japan. According to a Toyota Japan press release, the details of the leases should be finalized by the end of November, with deliveries of those highly sought after Prius PHEVs beginning in mid-December and continuing onward until the country's 200 units are all gone.

TOKYO — Toyota's Prius hybrid was the top-selling car in Japan in September for the
fifth straight month ... Toyota Motor Corp., the world's biggest automaker, sold 31,758 Prius cars last month, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.

Toyota said this week there was a backlog of Prius orders, numbering in the several thousands. Customers ordering the cars now won't get them delivered until after May 2010.

The Honda Fit is 2nd, while the Honda Insight has dropped back to 5th place.

Sales of the Prius, which was remodelled in mid-May, jumped 258 percent to 22,292 units from the year-earlier month, data from the Japan Automobile Dealers Association showed.

TOKYO (AP) -- Toyota's Prius hybrid -- already Japan's highest-selling car -- more than doubled its sales in June to claim the top spot for a second month, reflecting government tax breaks and growing popularity of products viewed as environmentally friendly.

Looks like a PriusChat member is about to become famous!  Ken@Japan, PriusChat's wonderful Japanese resource, will be a part of a program called NIKKEI Japan Report tomorrow, with the subject being "The Present and the Future" of the Japanese green economy.  Don't worry, it's an English-language show!

You'll be able to watch the show online on http://jibtv.com/ on the following schedule:

jibtv (UTC): 2009/6/26(Fri) 00:30 / 4:30 / 8:30 / 12:30 / 16:30 / 20:30

The Toyota Prius was Japan's best-selling car in May, while the Honda Insight dropped from 1st place to 3rd place behind the Honda Fit.

"I think a green car tax break and other incentives helped the sales performance (of the Prius) quite a bit," Akihiko Otsuka, chief engineer for the new Prius, told reporters in Toyota City, home to the automaker.

Shortages

It looks like Japan is getting all of the fun and comical TV ads for the 2010 Prius while the US is stuck with the artsy ones.  Below are 2 commercials airing in Japan that feature Superman helping to point out all of the new features on the 2010 Prius.  For the "Chuck" fans out there, you might recognize Superman as Bryce Larkin, AKA actor Matthew Bomer.  Funny enough, Bomer was originally cast as Superman for Brett Ratner's remake that never ended up happening.