Featured For Toyota, hybrids become a tougher sell

Adrenaline never sells me, honestly.

 

me either, but if you're trying to get someone to trade in their hellcat...

 

In other words, they are selling what the customer wants to buy?

 

Because their marketing department has likely figured out that the cost of developing a hatchback will not be recouped by sales of those vehicles. They dropped the Accord Wagon a number of years ago due to slow sales. They recognize that Prius sales are a fraction of Honda non-hybrid sales.

Prius and Prime sales recently - signficant downward trend on the Prius:








By comparison - Civic sales (the platform on which the Insight is developed):

 

yes, even computers can do that

 

Including the test drive?

 

@jb in NE : those are US sales? And: the periods should be commas, lol?

That's my sense: a gradually building swell, culminating 2012~2013, and then:

 

US sales, and whomever wrote the report put the periods in. But yes, they should be commas. I neglected to include the reference link for the data: US Car Sales Data - carsalesbase.com

 

Unfortunately, consumers are fickle. Hatchbacks are doing better than sedans now. Most Civics I see are such.

 

that's a great website, thank you.

i have to wonder about the spike from 2011 to 2012.

 

Careful with the "should" word. That report is the way most of the world presents their numbers. We are the ones who do it different.

 

That's not unfortunate. That's the free market.

 

Meant it was unfortunate for the new Insight to switch from hatchback to sedan.

 

I go to my dealer and ICE RAV4s are biggly available, hybrids not a one on the lot and any on order pre-sold. So maybe it is a matter of having the right packaging for the hybrid, not the hybridness itself. And if a plug in was available, I'll bet there would be a few sales but limited to early adopters and greenies.

 

Few sales based on what?

 

yep, I totally agree. Same deal here in the Twin Cities for the Rav hybrid. It's near impossible to find. Basically need to order and put down a deposit sign unseen. Nothing to test drive.

I have yet to see a 2019 Prius in Minnesota. They are not plentiful, nor do the western suburb dealers (i.e. brookdale and golden valley) have them in stock. I also know carlson toyota has very few in stock, low option list, have not even seen an awd prius model on a dealer lot.

I think this all spells that toyota is not pushing them like the rav 4 hybrid or even the camry.

 

I've been keeping an (online) eye on our nearby dealership, for a few months: there was usually a handful of 2019 Primes and Prius, more Primes than Prius. The Prius were about 75% AWD model. I've seen zero base model Prius, the one with a spare.

Currently, there's one 2019 Prius, an AWD model.

New Toyota Priuss for Sale | OpenRoad Toyota Port Moody

 

You can drive the gas version for 20 years without having to do much more than fuel, oil, tires & a starting battery. For better or worse, people now care much more about reliability & resale value for years 11-20 of a car's life. Hybrids score pretty poorly on that front.

 

That doesn't address the "would" part related to audience. We already knew this model-year was subject to limited availability due to the mixed inventory. What about when summer clearance ends, the 2020 model outlook?

 

Quite the opposite.
Gas versions have wear components, like clutches (or auto tranny), alternator, starter motor and belts that will certainly fail in 20 years service, some of them twice...
Hybrids (Toyota) score pretty well in reliability and resale value, 11years+...