PiP sales seem to be really lagging the Volt and Leaf

they are advertising the leaf on tv here for $22,000., that will send some out the door!pip is only sold in limited states.interesting that pip and volt were similar thru june.on the plus side, pip is beating tesla.

 

PiP inventory was very low, end of 2014 model year without any 2015 available.

PiP is still only available in the initial rollout states too.

Volt had many 2014 being cleared out with 2015 already on lots.

Volt also had some old leases replaced with new leases, which count as new sales.

That makes the take-rate a bit screwy, too different for direct compares.

 

My feeling it's probably all about Calfornia HOV (and inventory as per John above).

PiP sales were out of site thru June, in all liklihood reflecting Calfornia consumers zapping up PiPs before the Green Stickers ran out in May. I know we got more HOV stickers in Ca., but in May that was an unknown, If you knew you wanted a PiP with a Green HOV sticker, you would have had to buy before May to be assured of a Green HOV sticker.

Hat's off to Toyota, Toyota seemed to have Ca. PiP inventory available for the Jan-May PiP hot sales period. OTOH Volt sales were weak suggesting the cars were not there in inventory for the green HOV sticker rush. Now we may be seeing weakness in PiP since the Ca. demand was already met, whereas Volt may be making up for the weak first half.

 

Lots of good points here. Would add that PiP evolution is on track to be financially more sustainable when federal and state subsidies expire. Once these run out the PiP is significantly more affordable. Of course a lot of this won't happen until PiP, Volt, and Leaf 2.0, so we'll see.

 

The next-gen plug-in vehicles must be designed to compete for high-volume sales without any tax-credit assistance.

 

I am not expecting the "maximum" $7500 credit but if they could jack PiP up to $4000 that might be cool.

 

The PiP could double their sales by expanding sales nation as they planned to when they first released the PiP.
Toyota seems to have no interest in expanding plugin sales.

The PiP has a ton of advantages and could be doing very well.
I suspect this was a temporary dip and sales will be back up next month.

 

Interesting. My ownership of the PiP has been extremely satisfying. It has great utility with a great balance between electric and gas efficiency.

I drove my old 2006 Prius and noticed the handling and ride difference. To be fair, it had 200k+ miles (shocks almost 100k old) and my PiP is 20k+ miles.

 

This topic has been discussed in great detail many times.

The aspect which continues to float up to the top is: Staying within the initial rollout states has the advantage of learning how to penetrate a market which has already satistfied early adopters.

In other words, Toyota wants to figure out how to appeal to ordinary consumers. It's absolutely vital. The reality of tax-credits expiring and HOV stickers running out is a very big deal. Toyota would like to be well positioned for when that happens, which means figuring out how to achieve mainstream sales.

Knowing that in advance of rolling out the next-gen design will have a big payoff. Simply building more won't reveal that desired information.

 

If this is really the reason, I must confess I am surprised that it has taken Toyota so bloody long to figure out how to penetrate a market and sell the PIP.

 

It's pretty clear Toyota's "learning how the penetrate a market" with the PiP must be a multi-decade long project. How many years have PiP sales been restricted to a few states? How many more years do they need?

 

most people don't want hybrids. of those that do, most don't want to plug in. whether sales are going up or going down, no manufacturer has figured out how to 'penetrate the market'. you can't sell what people don't want, it's called supply and demand. sure they could sell a few more. it's pretty apparent they aren't interested in that.

 

A quick look at Camry & Corolla sales are good reality check.

 

But the trick is they do want to pay less for gas.

 

they only say that. and the ones that actually do, can't make the numbed work.

 

I didn't say they wanted hybrids now. I had a reason for using the word "trick". (humor). There seems to be something right about your reply "make the numbed work"....I just have not figured out what makes it seem correct.

 

LOL, one of the most appropriate spell check corrections in years.