Monday, February 23, 2009

The Toyota Prius is Great.

The Green Humans continues their GreenP2P cross country trek. Here's an update from Greenhuman John.

"The Toyota Prius is Great.

No really, the Prius really is a terrific automobile. With thousands of miles on this trip so far in all kinds of conditions, I have to say the Prius is comfortable, reliable, effortless to drive, and of course, gets great gas mileage.

What’s interesting is that despite having sold over half a million Prius in America over the last ten years, Toyota’s hybrid still only represents ten percent of their total light-duty vehicle sales. In fact hybrids in general only account for two and a half percent of total light duty car sales in the entire country, and are only projected to reach maybe eleven percent by 2015.

What the hell is going on? With all the pragmatic benefits of ownership, way are the Prius and its hybrid comrades falling down in the eyes of consumers?

I think the answer is that Americans just like cars, real cars with power and performance. "
Posted by at 5:22 PM
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  4. The problem has always been the supply of Prius has been less than the demand. In 2005, I was on a 'waiting list' for a Prius. The dealer called me in June and tried to make the next Prius into an auction!

    In May 2009, Prius sales took about a 40% dive because there were no more to be had. All of their allotment to the USA were sold. Once again, 'waiting lists' and pure dealer markup.

    It won't be until the Ford Fusion hybrid shows up that we'll have a USA hybrid worthy of the name (GM is still playing catch-up) But the Ford Fusion hybrid looks to fit between the Prius and Camry hybrids. It will be the first serious competition (until GM management is replaced.)

    The problem has always been on the supply side as Prius historically have not been gathering dust on the car lots. It hasn't been until the collapse of car sales in October 2009 that we've even seen Toyota dealers offering incentives on the Prius or even the Camry hybrid ... or any of their hybrids including Lexus.

    Look at the January sales any you'll see where the Prius sits relative to all hybrids:
    http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/hyb_sales_010.jpg

    The left group are luxury hybrids where mileage is not so important. The middle group are the working hybrids including the Honda Civic hybrid, Toyota Camry, and Ford Escape. The Prius and Lexus 400h are the extremes of their class of hybrids.

    Then look at the hybrids relative to the top 10 gas vehicles:
    http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/hyb_sales_020.jpg

    The Prius came within spittin' distance of being in the top 10 vehicles sold in January 2009. This is a really impressive sales volume.

    We use these charts to project where new vehicles, those not yet for sale, will fall in terms of market quantities. You'll notice we're using the "City" mileage since this is really where hybrids compete. Based upon the projected City mileage and cost, we see the Jetta TDI competing in the middle, "working hybrid" group.

    Bob Wilson

    ps. finally got a cuppa coffee
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  5. Owner of a Prius G2 since Sept 2006.
    Here in Montreal, Canada, it is quite harsh with wildly varying temperatures.

    Only gripe I have is that only in the G3 Prius is the heater & AC a true electric only device.

    Meaning a G2 Prius MPG goes way down, 40% down, with winter tires, heating, defrosting, winter gas, etc.

    But those other eight months it's a pleasure to drive, and with a PZEV exhaust, the cleanest anti-smog system out there.
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