I thought the lowest priced version was going to be available to fleet operators.

Bob Wilson

Maybe it will be. But they will probably have to wait until everyone else gets their Prius first. Right now, Toyota is focused on bringing in as much money as possible as they struggle to survive in the current economy and auto market. It's no secret that Toyota lost money last year and that other auto makers fared even worse. Toyota saw an opportunity here with the Prius to make an extra $400 each because demand is so high. This extra $400 times as many Priuses as they can sell will help Toyota survive until the economy returns. For those that want the "stripped down fleet" version of the Prius, they will likely be second in line after those that are paying the extra $400 markup fee.

Here's another good article:
Prius Takes Center Stage in Toyota Turnaround | Hybrid Cars

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They'll raise the price now so they can give rebates later when demand eases LOL. Give Thanks to the super car salesman, Lee Iocca

It was the $4 gas that killed the American car companies and damaged the auto market.
Sure, there was some panic last October when people were hiding money, but the surge in gas prices did a lot of damage. The car companies now know they can't sell their current inventory if gas is $4. So look for gas to stay around $2.50 for awhile. Hopefully, steps have been taken to minimize the effects of oil futures speculation on gas prices. That's what caused the spike, and it shouldn't be allowed to happen again. You can bet the car companies will see to that.

In the meantime, if the government wants more green hybrids on the road, they will have to provide incentives.

There's another very serious issue in play here ( for us in NA anyway ) and that's the currency situations.

When the Prius was announced in Jan of this year with pricing the JY / US$ rate was about 93 : 1. By April the rate had climbed up to about 100 : 1. Now it's under 90 : 1.

As background... over the last 10 yrs the rate generally fluctuated between 105 - 115 : 1

That means that a 'typical' Prius that's being sold by Toyota Japan to Toyota USA for about $20000 has lost ~3% in value since prices were announced in Jan.

As compared to the Gen 2's sold from 2004 onward at exchange rates of ~110 : 1 the current Gen 3's have lost 20% in value to the manufacturer Toyota Japan. On top of that Toyota lowered the price of the Gen 3's by about 5-10% in the US market.

Using just the base models as examples...
My 2005 had an MSRP of about $25000 ... at an exchange rate of about 110 : 1
A new 2010 Prius II has an MSRP of $22950 at an exchange rate of about 90 : 1

The math is easy. The result is a huge reduction in revenue.

Bingo.

Read this newest development. Toyota is mentioned twice in the article.
Fujii May ?Take Action? on Yen; G-7 Seeks Currency ?Stability? - Bloomberg.com

WIth $2.30 or so gas, not $4, the Prius sold 10k units last month. The Prius truly is becoming one of the next great family cars, not just "quirky" hybrid.

It makes sense for Toyota to sell the more expensive and profitable models. Clearly the Insight not only is no threat but a big miss for Honda. Lexus nearly sold as many 34k-45k HS 250h and 42k-58k RX 450hs (1200 HS sold, 1400 RXh sold, 1700 Insights sold last month)