Prius C outsells Volt, Nissan in 3 days

I see your point. However, I still believe the c and the Volt compete for the same consumer dollars. That is what makes the comparison reasonable and not absurd. Comparing a c and an F150 is not the same. That's the point I'd like you to see.

 

I see what you're saying. Although I don't think the comparison itself is "troubling," you feel that Toyota's motives in making that particular comparison may be underhanded. If you are correct about Toyota's motives, I would agree with you.

As far as plug-ins are concerned, I'd love to join the party. But I think I'll wait until Toyota comes out with a 2nd or 3rd generation plug-in before jumping on that bandwagon.

 

Actually, I think the post of the c's sales is definitely more of a slap to Chevy and Nissan's EV effort, but at the same time, I believe it is capitalizing on trying to get as much revenue out of the situation for gas now in preparation for an EV effort. If it kills off Chevy's volt, they may swipe the technology for their effort and see about putting it at a lower price point or collaborate with Nissan to improve Nissan's situation from their own PHEV experiments to counter Chevy's work.

As I stated before with the situation with the Volt and the Leaf, the problem is more on the state of the infrastructure in the US as a whole right now. It's a bit immature and people are wondering how to regulate it. It will get better in time, but there has to be a push to start maturing it now to get more EV based vehicles going, but the price point is also the killer part of the EV situation.

 

We should expect the prius c to greatly outsell the volt and leaf and phv. We should also expect the F150 to greatly outsell the prius c. Neither should be news. This doesn't mean a truck is better than a hybrid, or a hybrid is better than a plug in, just that at their respective price points and target markets they will sell more.

That group of buyers that want to spend $29K+ for new technology and has a garage and doesn't live where its too cold, is much smaller than those that want to spend $21K for proven technology in a small car that gets great mpg.

Now the news really is toyota underestimated demand for a small car with great mpg. If toyota does not add new manufacturing, american sales of the prius c and japanese sales of the aqua will likely be constrained by supply not demand.

 

Both Prius c and Volt are green compact commuter hybrid cars. One need to plug into external energy source to boost the MPG. The other doesn't.

F150 is not green, not a car nor compact. Oh, iPad is not even a car -- totally irreverent.

 

well, to start with, Volt is utter failure, Prius c is not.

GM has invested billions and thousands of engineers into this project and it failed spectacularly.

Toyota has invested billions in their hybrid project and they will sell 1,000,000 hybrids this year alone.

You see why Volt is an failure?

 

So the leaf is a failure too?

 

Actually, both are coming into the US market with a very immature infrastructure. Well, and the price point may not be ideal. The Leaf is going to suffer mostly due to range. The Volt, I think is just suffering on the price point. For some people I think it is also just 'design' for the interior, some for the exterior.

 

I feel like I'm arguing with a 3 year old, and I know you can't really reason with a 3 year old. Not that I'm calling you a 3 year old, its just its the same argument one would make. For those that like logic and marketing, I'll try one more time.

We can try all kinds of segmentation. Both the prius c and F150 are vehicles sold to the mass market using technology to make them get better mpg than their competition in the segment. For the prius c its hsd, for the f150 its ecoboost. Both will typically carry one or two passengers. Both use gasoline as their only means of propulsion. Seems like I can pretend much better they are the same. But they aren't. Prius c is a great selling small efficient car. The fact that it sells at a much lower volume than a ford truck, or even a toyota camry doesn't mean it is a bad selling car. Most can see the problem with this reasoning.

Now the inability to understand that volt and leaf are niche products, they have new technology like large batteries and the ability to run off of grid electricity normally be easy to understand. The FUD about dangerous and unreliable batteries on these vehicles should be familar to people that followed the prius in the beginning years. The prius c does not have the same baggage on its much smaller battery. If the prius c sold less than these cars there would be something very wrong with it. The hs250 was a miss and does not sell well because there is something wrong with the design for the market. Plenty of other threads on the leaf and volt, give them their due in there segments warts and all. Its not plug ins against hybrids, even though some of you would like to make it that way.

 

Leaf is doing pretty good globally outselling Volt about 3 to 1 so far.

 

If you disagree with me, just say it. Stop trying to sugar-coat an insult. It won't work because your insult has no effect on my view.

If someone is looking for a green car to commute, most likely that someone will pick the Prius c. The MSRP starts below half of Volt, carbon footprint is lower, no need to plug it in, it is a proven reliable design from Toyota and it doesn't weight more than a SUV (Equinox).

Peace, hope that didn't ruin the rest of your day.

 

I thought I did say that pretty clearly. I also was not trying to sugar coat an insult My audience was not just you, but others that may be following the same faulty line of reasoning.:welcome:

Have a good day.

 

The Prius C is lower carbon footprint in some states and only compared to people that don't buy renewable energy. But its worse in many states such as Cali, Orgon, Washington, Idaho, TX, NY, ....

if someone is looking for a vehicle for hauling materials, sheet rock, timbers, etc.. they may like an F150..

If someone is looking for a cheap green car for commuting, the Prius C is a very good choice. They might also like a Cruize Eco or a Sonic depending on what matters to them.


If someone is looking for a luxury ride that has power and prestige they may be in a BMW 750... or a Mercedes.

....

If someone is looking for a high quality car with more power and much better fuel economy, something with lots of quality awards, they might do well in a volt. And you do realize that a heavy car often provides a nice smooth ride.. so weight is only a problem to those that want small-light cars. There are many reasons the Volt rides/drives so well, but its low center of mass and overall mas s probably help.

Different vehicles for different needs.

 

While you remind me of a deaf-mute: you only hear the voices in your head, while just about everybody else is happy to ignore you.

 

drinnovation said

I was chatting with a fellow I gave a ride to this morning who mentioned that he usually drives a small Ford Ranger (when it is working), while his wife drives a "big 4x4." Since he obviously had very limited finances, I asked why that truck was chosen for the wife. He explained that they haul wood and coal for home heating, and the Ranger is too small to haul the weight.

Hmm. Sound plausible to anyone ? I thought even if true he would be a whole lot better off making two trips

 

This is where someone comes up to you and screams, "Don't bother the man with that crazy thing called 'logic', man!"

 

you mean the fact that they based their vehicle purchase decision on something they have to do 3-4 times per year, max? .

in reality, people like big pickups so thats why they are buying them.

 

fud about dangerous batteries come from GM underengineering the crash protection. There is no other reason.

as to the eco boost being same as hsd, i dont follow the logic. Eco boost is just a turbo charged smaller displacement engine.

 

FUD came because some people wanted to use the Volt as a political tool or desire to spread anti-GM hate. The fire weeks after a major crash that totals the car is NOT a real safety issue and is easily handled by discharging the battery.

The Volt already had and always maintained its 5-star crash side impact rating. Furthermore, in many test by IIHS, and NHSTA, no-one ever duplicated the crash that stated the fire. The only way the were able to get a second fire/sparking was to take the batteries out of the car an crash them directly. Hard to call a non-safety incident that cannot even be reproduced "under engineering", solving it seems to me to be overengineering.


Speaking of saftey, has the IIHS or NHSTA safety ratings for the prius C been release yet? (I tried searching and did not find them).

 

It's politically unpopular in the US right now, but carbon really is the big Kahuna. Everything else is deck chairs on the Titanic.

When you buy that plugin don't forget to switch your electricity supply to non-fossil: hydro, wind, Solar, or safe clean nuclear. Lots of utilities now offer options.