February 2014 - Hybrid Dashboard

2014 Toyota Corolla L , $16,800 MSRP, 31 mpg comb, 11.3 gal refill @ 350 mi, $45 refill @ $4

2014 Toyota Prius , $24,200 MSRP, 50 mpg comb, 7.0 gal refill @ 350 mi, $28 refill @ $4

2014 Toyota Corolla LE, $18,300 msrp, 32 mpg comb, 10.93 gas refill @ 350 mi, $43.75 @ $4

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$6,500 diff between Corolla LE , Prius Two consideering 10% TTL or $433 per year extra for gas for 15 years, or 27.5 fillups diff covered or 9,622 miles covered.

and it shows ... 48,000 Corolla/ Matrix sold Feb '14 YTD vs 16,500 Prius / PiP

and same goes for Civic, Elantra, Focus, etc ...

75% are willing to give up a hatchback, Smartkey and push button start for lower monthly payments.

 

Over 200,000 miles there is almost a $10,000 difference in the cost of fuel. Plus you would have higher resale on the Prius. Plus you get all those other goodies. It's a no brainer to me.

 

That's fine, but 125,000 buyers per month in US are choosing the Corollas, Civics, Focus, Cruze, Sentra and Jetta over Prius liftback.

"Lemme see, do I want to spend $6,500 more for the same 'performance' or do I want to spend $1,000 less and get 50 something more HP, 15" longer and 3" wider car (i.e. Accord LX, Camry LE) .... no brainer" .....

they want instant gratification.

Now, if the Prius was a couple thousand cheaper, had better power to weight and looked much better inside, they'd get more converts.

 

...also I estimate $1500 more tax on the Prius in north VA. If you're just doing 12000 miles per year its going to take 17 years to do 200000 miles and some states have lower gasoline taxes than CA so we are more like $3.60/gal if I am comparing with Cycledrums $4/gal. Just saying the math is not slam dunk for everyone.

CA has high car tax so Prii probably $1000 more taxes but then they have high gaso tax, so its a wash, but CA is not necessarily the most hybrid friendly tax structure. In that sense, Corollas and Civics logic for CA can be seen. Same here in VA.

 

snopes.com: Slow Boiled Frog
I think we're smarter than frogs ... but not too much.
in either case - even ( amphibians ) frogs are smarter than most people give them credit - and that being the case - people won't wait as long they think frogs will wait ( crossing my fingers )
.

 

The Prius line-up makes "sense (¢ents)" to those who have (a) lived when gasoline was only 24.9¢ a gallon (1962) and (b) can 'see' the proverbial '$4-$5-per-gallon' handwriting on the wall (ie: the next Russian, Iranian, Arabian, Chinese, or North Korean political hiccup).

 

Quite the glut of Prius liftbacks at Fremont Toyota (a very large dealer). Well over a hundred liftbacks and quite a few PiPs sitting along the 1/4 mile rows, collecting dust, 12V batteries draining.

IMO, the 2014 Corolla dr. seat (at least the S model) is better than the liftback and so is the Prius v.

Prius liftback needs an interior 'shot in the arm' (makeover). ...

But it pulls the MPGs that's for sure - 509 / 9.15 gal = 55.6 MPGs on this fillups. Unfortunately for me, the interior causes me to (often) not appreciate the MPGs.

 

The majority will not pay for smartkey, and prefer 4 door sedans to hatchbacks. Toyota does allow you to get a sedan (camry hybrid) for a similar price.

IMHO matching options are a drawback in the US, toyota hybrid sales. Part of the hybrid premium is having to buy things that you don't want to get the hsd. The aqua (prius c) and gen II camry hybrid both reduced the hybrid premium, and increased hybrid market share. Both of these serve segments of people that might have bought a liftback but would rather have these vehicles.

It should be remembered that the ASP of a new vehicle in the US is now over $31K, which is higher than all but the most expensive optioned prius. The problem is not price, but percieved value and auto dealers. One of the major auto fan mags even did an analysis of the current gen camry hybrid and with the greater hp and fuel economy made economic sense. For the aqua (prius c) these things make a lot more sense with japanese driving habits and taxes than in the US. Still with lower sales this year so far, it may make sense for toyota to train dealers on selling the prius and camry hybrid instead of the corolla and non-hybrid camry.
+1

 

March 2014 Plug-In Electric Vehicle Sales Report Card

 

That equates to 'month-over-month' %-increases/decreases of:

..Nissan Leaf = 13.8%(J-F), 75.9%(F-M)
Tesla Model-S = 75.0%(J-F), 14.3%(F-M)
...Chev. Volt = 31.8%(J-F), 22.1%(F-M)
....Prius PiP = 29.6%(J-F), 39.5%(F-M)
..Chev. Spark = -23.7%(J-F), 40.8%(F-M)
..Toyota RAV4 = 58.7%(J-F), -27.7%(F-M)
....Fiat 500e = -37.5%(J-F), 40%(F-M)
.Cadillac ELR = 41.5%(J-F), 39.7%(F-M)
.Honda Fit EV = 10.0%(J-F), 12.1%(F-M)
.Honda Accord = -11.1%(J-F), -25%(F-M)

 

Top 20 Best-Selling Cars In America - March 2014

 

Ok, thx, but of the top 20 cars, Prius liftback sales are down monthly and YTD more than any other. And gas prices are up, over $4 / gal in lot of places here. ... and it's going to be quite some time (maybe 9 mos to a year?) before an all new one arrives. Only 2 out of 10 people want to spend a thousand more bucks for a 134 HP Prius than a 180 something HP Camry, even if they lose 20 MPG or so.

 

...I assume the sell-out of green HOV tags in CA is pushing March sales there.
Leaf I am not sure but GA was talking about stopping their $5000 incentive, but I think they decided to keep it.
In general I suspect the states with really big incentives are driving most of the Plug_in story.