Featured Toyota Prius sales have tanked, 4 reasons why

For me as a long term Prius driver, I vote 4. The Prius is a great car but they screwed up the design. It's less practical AND ugly IMO. If they put the Gen4 engine in the Gen3 body, I'd be perfectly happy to upgrade.

 

5. 2018 Camry Hybrid LE at 51/53 mpg.

 

That falls under #3.

All four have already been discussed here to some degree or another. I think #4 has the least impact, or at least no more than previous generations. I remember people saying the same about the gen2's design, and sales were dropping before the gen4 arrived.

 

Cars sales in general have tanked, Americans don’t buy efficient cars with cheap gas, gas prices are set for s strong increase but I bet with the stock market tanking, jobs and oil futures will fall as well making this trend continue

 

agree with the article, btdt.

 

Agree with 1-4.

Would add:
5. Prime cannibalizing sales

Can either let others eat your lunch, or you create offspring to eat more of your own lunch with the Prime before others take all the rest.

 

I see a mention of no 2018 Prius v too.

 

Some say the RAV4 Hybrid is cannibalizing Prius v sales. They included the Prime as a Prius.

 

1- Gas prices are going back up...
2- That's a good reason...
3- I just bought a Niro, it looks so much better than a Gen IV
4- See #3....
But yes, there are are so many more options now, it was bound to take a bite out of sales

 

Where do I get get this cheap gas everyone keeps talking about? I'm paying a not cheap $2.50 to $3.00 per gallon! Who decided this was cheap and why do you listen to them? Prius has poor ride and handling? Have you ridden in a RAV4? Just ranting at the masses.

Subaru "Prime SUV" coming soon.

 

That is cheap. I just looked it up and the price in Canada is US $4.20 per gallon. (CA $1.11 per litre)

 

29 Rav4's at local dealer. 13 of them are Hybrid. that's 10 more than any other model on the lot. Until now you only saw 1 or 2 samples of the other Hybrid models on the lot. Obvious what Toyota is trying to sell and I don't think it's at a loss. Search our New Inventory | University Toyota Morgantown, WV

 

James, what is the state tax in WVA? And how does gas get to Morgantown? Is it on a major pipeline or does it have to be trucked in? In bordering NC, I haven't seen $2.50+ in several years except maybe when the pipeline had problems. $2.389 today.

 

I think all 4 reasons have degrees of validity and impact.
I've probably been part of threads that have discussed each one individually in one form or another.

I think I tried to start a thread once asking what people would do to jump start enthusiasm for Prius and Hybrids.
The answers were varied.

A quick google search, brings me back to 2003, when The Prius was so unique and "cool" it stole the headlines at the Academy Awards by being the red carpet arrival vehicle of choice. -- And the truth is, that was a long time ago.

The other truth is redesign or otherwise, you can only be the "new" cool thing once, and for a limited time.
The Prius has become mainstreamed. Common.

Toyota themselves seems torn on how to market The Prius....moving away from efficiency and being green, to more of a no compromise approach, The vehicle on the merits of it's own beauty. Commercials with Prius squealing tires, and turning the heads of beautiful women. Not the advertising approach that The Prius has been connected to most of the Prius's existence.

These are somewhat undefined days for The Prius. The death of the Prius v.

In my opinion, Hybrids are about efficiency, both in fuel usage and in clean emissions. We can fool ourselves that isn't the primary reason we look at Hybrids and other alternative options. But nobody is buying a Prius if it's the same vehicle it is, at the same cost, and gets 26 mpg.
You want to capture back some of the early mojo of the Prius?

I think Toyota has to find a way to push the envelope in terms of MPG. The 50 mpg benchmark is still impressive, in comparison to the rest of the ICE world.
Trust me, I'm driving a Honda Fit now, and I'm visiting the gas station more frequently. There's a big difference between roughly 30 mpg, and roughly 50 mpg.
But I think to create real excitement about a Hybrid product, that efficiency ceiling must be raised.
What we have seen recently is, that a larger Prius that get's less MPG....did not work.
A sexier, more refined and comfortable Prius, at 50 mpg...is not grasping a whole lot of new audience.
What the future for The Prius c...with a similar 50 mpg efficiency will become? Who knows?

I was disappointed when The Prius c was released. I actually like a smaller vehicle. But when I was looking at Prius, buying a subcompact sized Prius that got roughly 50 mpg, or a Standard Prius 2, at nearly the same price as a well appointed Prius c, just didn't allow me to really want to choose the Prius c.
In other words, I think I would of bought a Prius c, easily if the MPG was significantly better. If it was closer to 60 mpg.
But with MPG being nearly equal, and at the time Prius 2's being sold at about the same price as top of the line Prius c's, I felt I would of been stupid to get the Prius c.

So I think two things could revive the Hybrid market. Significant increase in gasoline prices. OR...significant increase in the fuel efficiency of a hybrid. Break that 50 mpg mark.
Others have reached 50..or close enough. Standard ICE's are at least marketable as being green and efficient.
Prius no longer has the mystique of being new and unique.
I think it's best hope, is to once again go before....and climb higher on the mountain. Set a new tangible benchmark.

Easy to say...perhaps much harder to design and realize.

But I still think back to that Academy Awards. When the the new Gen 2 was an impressive vehicle. 50 mpg and the real utility of The Prius made it a fantastic product.
Then it didn't have to squeal it's tires, and the "Stars" chose to step out of the doors of a Prius. Then it was admired because of it's quirky and polarizing look.
The "ugly" Prius was the beautiful Prius to own.

Give me a 60 mpg or more Prius? And maybe some of that unique excitement would be recaptured.

 

Just a socio politico rant over cheep gas washing which is similar to green washing and Mr. Sawyers fence white washing. Not really a discount if it was overpriced to begin with but that's how this economy is run. OK time for Hockey

 

I have been impressed with the ride and handling of my Gen 4 and I did drive a RAV4 and was not impressed, it rides like a truck.

 

This is what I shared:

Technology moves on but sometimes Toyota lags. In 2016 the Level 2, ECO did not come with TSS-P. Instead they offered a moonroof, Level 3 with TSS-P for the same price as an end-of-lease, 2014 BMW i3-REx with TSS-P like safety features. So we went with the BMW.

Six months later, a latent BMW problem led to using our backup, 2010 Prius that did not have TSS-P. I replaced it with a 2017 Prius Prime to get TSS-P and never looked back.

We're putting equal miles on the cars as they cost $2.50 to $2.90 driving EV around town. About 1/3d of those are free electricity from local merchants. Yet either car can and has taken +1,000 mile trips on gas at an affordable 40-56 MPG.​

Bob Wilson

 

I only checked one source, so I could be mistaken, but this article states 46 mpg combined (which is still fantastic).
2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid gas-mileage review: going the distance

I haven't been able to appreciate the gen 4 styling, but that is what others have told me about my boxy gen 1 Scion xB.

 

compare gas price with inflation 2018 vs 1968, also, it is the smallest line item in most peoples budgets.