Has Toyota fallen out of love with the Prius?

not sure it's rational to buy a pig when gas prices are lower, and complain when they go up, as you said, 'they inevitably will'.

 

For most of its history the Prius had little competition for fuel economy. Honda discontinued the Insight after 2006 leaving diesels like the VW Jetta.

People get conditioned to prices and have short memories. What at one time was "high" is now "low". Sooner or later we'll pump the western US dry of all the "easy" oil and prices will climb.

It's easy to be the sales leader when you're the only game in town and buyers care about fuel economy. Now there are more choices with economies ranging from close to a Prius to better than a Prius and buyers don't care about mpg. Throw in a tax deduction or expiring credit not available on other models and sales are shifted from future years.

Historically the Prius has had leading edge features for the price enticing Techhie buyers. As those features have become mainstream (to mandatory) one doesn't have to buy a Prius to get the latest bells & whistles. With the Prius being an old design it doesn't have the latest gizmos.

DRCC & PCS should work better. There should be more voice commands. The TPMS is minimalist. Where's the power/remote lift gate? Where's the improvement in the fuel economy?

In my opinion, Toyota got fat dumb & happy and now the others are catching up. Look how many here have gone from a Prius to a Volt, Tesla, LEAF, or something else.

 

considering all the hybrid/ev competition, i think prius sales have held up remarkably well. a few dozen going to volt is not really a dent, and makes sense in most cases, it's for the ev.

 

I don't see gas prices making much of a difference. The Prius is a good car, gets great mpg, and not insignificantly, gives you a Prius high. I'm spending about $35 a month on gas, and still love it. As far as gas prices go, I think people are savvy enough that short term drops are kinda like the stock market drops, it'll level up and start the inevitable climb again. If it doesn't, the price of gas, or stocks, will be the least of your problems.

 

maybe canapeople, but ameripeople rush out and buy sequoia's at the first sign of gas dropping.

 

Toyota's attitude, and the publics for that matter, I think will be greatly illuminated by the reception and release of the Gen 4.

I started to get serious about Hybrids around the time just before the release of the Gen 3 Prius, and the nearly simultaneous release of the at the time "New" Honda Insight.

The build up, and enthusiasm for both products was amazing. Really amazing.

In the US, with gas prices at least being stable, if not on the low side, along with main stream success of The Prius, some of the panache and uniqueness of owning the product has surely dissipated.

Leaf, Volt, Tesla...and Fords Hybrid products...there are now alternative automobiles that I think have the panache of being singularly more unique than owning a Prius.

Does this mean Toyota has fallen out of love with "The Prius"? I don't think so. If Toyota wasn't still committed to Prius, you wouldn't have the expansion of The Prius Family.

Does Toyota need to raise the bar with their own product? I thinks so.

I own a Gen 3. I think it is a great product. But can Toyota do better? Hopefully each evolution shows improvement.

If Toyota improves The Prius within the Gen 4 incarnation, I think new enthusiasm for the product can and will be created.

Honda tried with mix results with the CRZ, but I also think there is room for a sportier, small hybrid. I know I'd be interested in a Hybrid that looked as sporty as a CRZ, perhaps drove with a closer relationship to a sports car pedigree, but also gave me hybrid efficiency numbers. I don't suggest this as a replacement for The Prius, but as a hybrid "mainstream" product that I don't really think exists yet. The CRZ just isn't efficient enough, and the Prius c, while a great product, is still a hybrid based on economy, and efficiency above being a "sporty" product.

If Toyota doesn't raise the bar with the Gen 4 Prius, I'd be willing to speculate on their commitment to the product. But I don't expect lethargy in this regard.

The "New Thing" love fest might be over, but teaching the old dog some new tricks can really re-ignite a lot of enthusiasm.

I think the safety net, is that I believe the Prius Hybrid, is a good/great product...period. You will always have ups and downs with sales and popularity, but build a good product? And there will always be a market.

 

Europeans and GB are in love with Diesel. Not to different from Americans in love with Unleaded Fuel. Its a mind change to buy something different from what you know and your neighbors drive.

There is a slight decline in sales in the US, but that may be to lower gas prices, more hybrids, EVs and Diesels to choose from or holding out for the new Prius. A friend of mine just traded in his Prius with 100K miles plus for a 2014 VW Passat TDI. He made the change as he wanted a larger car and one that gets high MPG. TDI gets pretty close to the same MPG as his Prius did.

The Prius is here to stay at least in the USA, the new Prius will be manufactured in a new plant in the USA. I don't see any indication that Toyota has plans to do away with the Prius. Prius is the number one selling vehicle in California, that's a lot of cars!

 

Remember once, years ago, in Knapps Plantland, looking around. Was idly thinking of something suitable for a hedge. Came upon these little evergreens in tubs, with labels saying "Sequoia - mature height 400 feet". Took all my strength to resist...

 

I don't think Toyota, or the public has "fallen out of love" with it overall. The Public is just cyclical. Toyota is just focused on the next gen.

The model is long in the tooth, the competition (even non-hybrid, non-diesel) has really caught up with their overall MPG, and like JimN said, a lot of the bleeding edge tech that helped launch the Prius now seems old hat, everyone has it.

The Gen4 really needs to shine. It needs to make a serious leap forward in some category worth caring about to make people go out and buy a new one. For some that is overall MPG, for some it's luxury, handling, amenities, tech, etc.. I bought my Prius in 2010 during the last dip in gas prices (0% financing from Toyota showed how hard they were trying to move them) but as we all know, gas prices WILL come up again, and it may very well coincide with the launch of the Gen4, and how perfect would that be?

 

Examples ?

 

yes, i was wondering that myself.

 

Sporin can speak for himself, but in the meantime I'll add my own 2 cents:

If a decade ago Prius offered 50 MPG and most other competing choices (in the mind of the shopper, anyway) were 25 MPG, today competing choices are 30 MPG. We might be inclined then to say that Prius has to 'up it's game' to 55 MPG to maintain it's competitive advantage from a decade ago. Or if we were more arithmetically inclined we would declare that Prius MPG has to jump to (30/25)*50 = 60 MPG to maintain it's old advantage.

This is all well and good so far as it goes, but to a large degree it is irrelevant. The overwhelming fraction of car buyers do not shop for a car that has 'x' better MPG than the fleet average, they shop amongst a short list of cars that meet their fuel cost budget. As an example, let's say that buyers are comfortable paying $150 a month for car fuel. At $3 a gallon they can buy 50 gallons a month and a 30 MPG car allows them to travel 1500 miles a month or 18,000 miles a year. Cool ... now they have lots of cars to choose from, some of which appeal to them more than a Prius for a host of reasons that span how the car looks to how it performs to what others say.

But wait, how does the rumor that the next Gen Prius MPG will increase to 55 MPG change their short list ? Not one bit.

 

i can't speak for anyone, but it seems like most of the newbies here mention the fabulous mpg's, and don't mention all the other cars that they looked at that were 'close'. you get your odd diesel comp every now and again. another thing is comparing highway vs city. there's more competition on the highway, but still not close other than diesel.

 

Quite so, but we are trying here to understand the drop-off in Prius sales. That is, the people who did not buy a Prius.

I've been listening to people explain their non-Prius car choices for many years now. Fuel economy is usually mentioned with the tag line "pretty good." That always seems to parse out to mean "good enough for me."

 

right, and only in the UK, which i think we've drifted away from. although they are down here as well, i think gas prices have much to do with it, but gc says not the case in britain.

 

GC was talking only about 'Prius.' IIRC Toyota hybrid sales are on a nice upward trend in UK although the absolute numbers are still pretty pedestrian.

Years ago I predicted that the Yaris hybrid (our Prius 'c') would favorably compete against diesels in those parts of Europe where diesel fuel is not preferentially subsidized. The numbers support this happening, albeit still in modest terms.

Read this Toyota blurb. Light on data but I think the message is consistent with improving sales.

 

then again, in any population, there may be a ceiling for any model car. perhaps we've reached it short of some outside influence.

 

Yep.

Check out this table.

 

thanks, it would be interesting to see that for all cars. gen IV will bring more buyers, but there will still be a ceiling. we want to see more hybrid/high mpg/ev sales, but there have to be good reasons for people to switch.