Hybrid Dashboard Summary: May 2015

because suv's are more comfortable?

 

i have to keep mine in my front pocket, so much cash saved. 70 mpg on my last 600 mile tank, no plug involved.

 

Yes toyota even makes the prius in china. They decided not to make the prius in the US, but produce it in China because they have a tarrif and the US doesn't seem to care. Does it sell well there? No partially because the Chinese don't like buying Japanese products, but also because it is expensive tco wise compared to other cars, but does not have the luxury that richer chinese want.
Prius Rare Like Panda Prompts Toyota China Strategy Shift - Bloomberg Business

In the past not making the prius in the US added significantly with the hybrid premium. Higher electricity, labor, transportation and inventory costs had to be absorbed or passed on to the customer. With the devalued yen this extra cost of manufacturing has shrunk. It appears that Toyota and the abe government have decided to keep the next gen prius exported to US from Japan to help with unemployment in Japan.

EU numbers for prius have always been crappy. In Japan buyers are moving from the liftback to the aqua (prius c in the US) and corolla.

Let's face it, it is not just gas prices. This is because its been over 6 years since major changes to this car. When it was introduced back in april 2009 there was no real competition in the segment in the US, and it was considered a high tech car. Now toyota is competing with itself with the camry hybrid (upsales so not a bad thing for toyota), prius c, corolla - all newer cars. It also has better cars from ford, chevy, honda, and hyundai that compete. No wonder sales have fallen in the last 2 years. A good gen IV will fix all these problems.

naw, toyota needs to get the new one out.

 

Being willing to make a knockoff of any product that's popular - there IS the Chinese prius .... although the quality might not quite be there


The Toyota Prius Faces a New Chinese Competitor | Electric Car Conversion Blog



maybe their gen IV will have 4 wheels.
.

 

yikes. not exactly a knock off you would be scared of.

The chinese seem to like the vw jetta, ford focus, and chevy cruze. VW and GM are making money hand over fist over there, and both have joint ventures with chines companies. The government though does not like or trust japan, is unlikely to give toyota any special privalages as they enjoy in Japan and the US. China is practically forcing them to build a bev if toyota wants to stay in the market. Toyota built a prius plant but china taxes the imported from japan hsd, battery, and ice.

 

funny how car buyers are ignorant to the fact that we have a very 'fragile' economy.

 

The small car market seems quite healthy
Small Car Sales In America - May 2015 YTD - GOOD CAR BAD CAR

sonic seems to be down, but the new fit, now built in north america. Its sad that there are layoffs to accompany the new hiring at a different plant, but ... Fit gets over 10% better mpg than the sonic. There are net job losses in Michigan and Japan, and job gaines in Mexico.

For ford, this job loss seems misleading.
As sales of small cars dip, Ford to lay off about 700 workers at Michigan plant| Reuters

ytd (jan-may) focus sales are up 0.4%, and up 1.1% yoy for may. March was simply a bad month. ford has been building inventory so it can save labor costs. For the c-max the year has been bad though, the hybrid is down 23% yoy and energi is down 2.2%.

Ford has increased employment. These worker will move to other plant

So it sucks, the lowest paid autoworkers will either have long commutes or have to move, but ford is really rotating jobs.

 

June 2015 Sales Chart

Please click here for full Toyota Canada Inc. June sales results.

 

Prius C is down 19% in sales from last year. Could it be the new styled front end?

 

Yaris went up so maybe a shift, because oil is still "cheap"...

 

tough to put into perspective without all manufacturers, but i don't expect decent hybrid/plug in sales until gas hits at least $4., i wonder how total auto sales are to date vs last year? one of these days, people are going to stop buying new cars.

 

Total light duty sales are at record pace for 2015 looking at 17 million sales adjusted for year end

 

light duty does not include pickups?

 

light duty includes pickups and SUVs with gvw under 8500lbs

Car sales are up. People stop buying during a recession, but now that the economy is improving new cars are replacing those old clunkers. average age of a light vehicle is now 11.4 years. There is only so long you can hold onto a daily driver.

Car sales have fallen in Japan. There were multiple incentive programs to trade cars so their fleet is much younger than the US fleet. IIRC average age is only 6 years That means toyota is more dependent on american sales for its profits.

 

pick ups skew the numbers because so many are for business purposes.

 

I think the same can be said about cars. Some of those sales are going to rental and company fleets.
And plenty of trucks are just plain daily drivers.

 

but the trucks used for business shouldn't be compared to hybrid sales.