Prius Supplies at 2 Year Low

[Prianista]

May 13 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius hybrid, the most fuel-efficient car sold in the U.S., is getting harder to find on dealer lots and commanding higher prices when customers do. [more]

[tripp]

I wonder how long before Toyota announces that they'll be opening some production lines here in the States. Seems like it can't be too far off. It would reduce the cost of the car (I wonder how much it costs per unit to ship them from Japan).

[burritos]

Originally Posted by tripp

I wonder how long before Toyota announces that they'll be opening some production lines here in the States. Seems like it can't be too far off. It would reduce the cost of the car (I wonder how much it costs per unit to ship them from Japan).

With the fall of the dollar, it might be more profitable in the long term to build here in the US.

[eclipse3g]

When you compare our Labor rates to those of other countries, you see why so many US based companies have moved their manufacturing off shore. At the current labor rates its cheaper for Toyota to make them in Japan and ship them to the states as opposed to making them locally. This is a sad but true statement. Add to this the initial cost of setting up and outfitting a US based assembly plant.

It could be done but would probably add somewhere between $5K-$10K to the current cost to make it feasible. Would you be willing to pay this additional costs.

[sleonardelli]

Japan knows how to play the Laws of Supply & Demand game; just look @ the Wiis

[drees]

Originally Posted by eclipse3g

It could be done but would probably add somewhere between $5K-$10K to the current cost to make it feasible. Would you be willing to pay this additional costs.

Please explain how they produce 1.5 million cars, 1.3 million engines and 400k transmissions in the USA and still manage to make a profit. If it would save them $5-10k on each of these vehicles produced in the USA, Toyota would bump profits up another $7-15 BILLION dollars.

Engineering and Manufacturing Plants

[acdii]

April is a good month to deal on Hybrids(any car for that matter), I got both Hybrids in April and did quite well on them. Cant find another TCH around for 50 miles now, they are all sold out. I can find plenty of Prius though.

[DeadPhish]

Originally Posted by tripp

I wonder how long before Toyota announces that they'll be opening some production lines here in the States. Seems like it can't be too far off. It would reduce the cost of the car (I wonder how much it costs per unit to ship them from Japan).

Simply on a currency conversion basis the JY has lost about 15% to the US$ over the last year.

To recover that the Package 6 Prius 'should' sell for about $32000+ rather than $28000 as it does now. That's what it's costing them to ship Prius' here. I agree that making them here is a smart idea...

Hmmmmm....what plant is underutilized today due to rising fuel costs? Take your pick... Princeton Ind or S Antonio TX? Princeton is down the Toyota Interstate ( I64 ) from Georgetown so I could possibly see them discontinuing the Tundra/Sequoia there and concentrating all the truck production in TX.

[DeadPhish]

Originally Posted by eclipse3g

When you compare our Labor rates to those of other countries, you see why so many US based companies have moved their manufacturing off shore. At the current labor rates its cheaper for Toyota to make them in Japan and ship them to the states as opposed to making them locally. This is a sad but true statement. Add to this the initial cost of setting up and outfitting a US based assembly plant.

It could be done but would probably add somewhere between $5K-$10K to the current cost to make it feasible. Would you be willing to pay this additional costs.

The currency factor is far more important. They'd save gobs of money making it here even at our 'elevated' rates. Remember those rates are only 'elevated' in relation to our own labor rates. Example

Two years ago lets say Otto in Germany and Joe in Detroit made the same rate for a basic 40 hours @ $30 / hour and 30 Euros / hour.

Today both make the same rates in their respective countries but where it took $1 to buy 1 E 2 yrs ago now it takes $1.50 to buy 1 E. Looking at it from a German ( or Japanese ) investor's pov..

Two years ago it took 30 Euros to buy $30 worth of labor in the US ( 1 hour ). today it only costs that investor 20 Euros out of his pocket to buy the same $30 of US labor. To him it looks like labor in the US is dirt cheap. He pays his worker in Mannheim 30 Euros/hr and he pays his worker in Detroit 20 Euros/hr. Nice business if you can react quickly enough.

Everything is dirt cheap here now; land, buildings, electricity, supplies, everything and unfortunately so are profits made here worth less and less.

This summer we should see a flood of Euro and Asian visitors here because everything in the US is on sale at 33% off.

[taggart]

Just happy to have mine.