This was taken from the front window of a taxi in Shanghai, China, last week. I didn't actually see any driving around, but did see several advertisements. I thought it was unusual, so heres a pic.
I'm actually surprised that China hasn't copied the Prius, sold it for half the price and you'll be lucky to get a year out of it before it breaks.
<_< It has been previously posted and reported that Toyota was building a Prius factory in China and that Prius manufactured there would be sold ONLY in China. Sounds like it's happening.
My parents, who reside in Shanghai were actually interested in purchasing a prius out there until they saw the price. I believe it cost 350,000 RMB for the base package, which is around 43,000 USD. China, in order to protect its domestic car production, has huge tariffs on imported cars. That is why VW, BMW, Mercedes, and i guess now toyota all have domestic plants in China to produce cars for China. I believe eventually, those plants will be churning out cars exported around the world.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bigj3347 @ May 31 2007, 12:32 PM) [snapback]452652[/snapback]</div> Yup. Bet money on it. Right now it seems like China and India are running #1 & #2 for low overhead. I think China has the edge in (heavy) manufacturing while India has the edge in (light) manufacturing and the service industry. The key is millions of surplus people and no environmental regulation to increase costs.
