Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported today that Toyota plans to resume overtime at its Aichi plant next month in order to help meet strong demand for the new 2010 Prius. Toyota has received orders for more than 110,000 vehicles and plans to raise monthly output of the model by 20 percent from the original schedule to about 50,000 cars, NHK said.
Toyota Motor Sales' original sales expectations for the US market was 100,000 units by the end of 2009. With 7 months left in 2009, that would be an average of over 14,000 Prius units/month. If the 20 percent output translates into US sales, that would bump monthly sales to around 17,000 per month and 120,000 total.
Will Prius sales jump to the levels that we saw last summer with $4 gas prices given today's relatively low gas prices and weak economy?
Source: Reuters
Image: Flickr user urbangarden
