Prius Sales Up 20.7% in November

Wow, the Insight has lost a lot of momentum in Japan. I wonder what will happen when the incentives in Japan stop. I'd imagine Prius sales will slow down significantly but wonder how bad Insight sales will fall.

 

In Japan, the current tax incentive is continued until March 2012 and the current pay back is ended in March 2010, however the new Japanese government is planning to extend the pay back until September 2010.

Anyway, Toyota has a lot of back orders from Japanese customers until June 2010 delivery.
The 25k/month Japanese Prius sales will be continued until June 2010 at shortest.

I'm not sure about the Insight. But, Honda has 18k/month Insight production capability. I think the Insight back orders are very few.

Ken@Japan

 

Keep in mind, the Prius is not a small or compact car. While relatively short, it is classified in the U.S. as a midsize car (based on interior volume). So really you put it in the wrong category.

Also, gas is cheap compared to most of 2008, but even in the midst of the recession, it is higher than at any time before 2005.

That's correct. The initial intent was that there were enough funds to potentially last until Nov.1, but that ran out in about 2 weeks time, and they added another week or two of funds, but it still ended in August. At the time a lot of naysayers were saying this was just cannibalizing future sales, but it doesn't appear to be the case, at least not significantly.

 

That is correct. Prius has more interior volume than Fusion Hybrid.

 

By what measure? The Fusion Hybrid has 101 ft^3 of passenger space vs 94 ft^3 for the Prius. If cargo volume is included, the Fusion Hybrid still comes out ahead by 1 ft^3.

 

You can lay a 6 ft ladder into a Prius, you cannot do that with a Fusion or an Escape
Volume number are a not alway a good indicater of what can fit ino a car

 

I looked at the vehicle year to date numbers. The average decrease of YTD numbers was -34% ... owch!

Winners (upper quadrant):

	Column 1	Column 2
0	model	YTD %
1	RX	10.6%
2	RAV4	4%
3	Dom. Corolla	-.9%
4	Dom. RX	-1%
5	4x4 Tacoma	-13.5%
6	Prius	-14.7%

.

Losers (lower quadrant):

	Column 1	Column 2
0	model	YTD %
1	4Runner	-65.4%
2	GX	-61.6%
3	FJ Cruiser	-59.2%
4	Scion tC	-56.9%
5	LS	-50.5%
6	Scion xD	-48%

.

IMHO, the only way to save the Scion series would be to go 1.5L hybrid for at least the xB. Of all the Scion series, the xB is doing 'less bad' and as a hybrid could give the other cracker boxes on wheels a run for their money.

Bob Wilson

 

The volume for the Fusion Hybrid and non-hybrid are not the same. Prius has 3.7 cu.ft more total interior volume than the Fusion Hybrid.

Fusion / Fusion Hybrid / Prius
Passenger volume (cu. ft.); 100.3 / 99.8 / 93.7
Luggage capacity (cu. ft.); 16.5 / 11.8 / 21.6
Total interior volume (cu. ft.); 116.8 / 111.6 / 115.3

Source: http://assets.forddirect.fordvehicl...eDoc_8801F25B-AFFF-6776-E487-DCAAE487DCAA.PDF

 

Aha. fueleconomy.gov seems to have forgotten to make that distinction for the hybrid vs the non-hybrid.

 

Later than normal, GreenCarCongress reported hybrid sales:

Green Car Congress: Reported US Sales of Hybrids Up 21% in November; New Vehicle Market Share of 2.7%

Percentages can sometimes be misleading. Toyota's 16.3% increase in hybrid sales would be ~2,359 units ... about the same as Ford's total hybrid sales and more than the total sales of any other manufacturer. Regardless, the GM directions are why I don't see them as having much of a future.

Bob Wilson