Prius as a Toyota sub-brand - it's getting closer

I think it should be ok as long as all vehicles under Prius brand use HSD with 4 cylinder gas engines.

 

Prius has become a very strong brand name, it's like the Coca Cola of hybrid cars. Not exploiting the name would be stupid. But diluting it would be suicidal. I think Toyota execs will have to think very carefully about this move.

I personally can see, for the American market, a wagon or minivan hybrid, a pick-up hybrid, a mini-hybrid that is low cost, and of course the standard Prius similar to what we have today.

The wagon/minivan hybrid would target not only the family segment but also the small businesses. I see huge potential there.

The pick-up hybrids would target not only the contractors and those who have a towing need, but also your urban cowboys (and we do have a lot of those in this country, especially in my neck of the woods.)

The low-cost minis would target the younger, hipper, single crowd.

 

I do. But not a crossover, a true minivan. Something sized a little smaller then this years crop of minivans, but more like the minivans of 4 years ago.

I also think a Prius should be a car, not a brand. To me I have always seen the HSD badge as a good branding element as well.

The Camry hybrid also has sold in considerable volume, its also not a "power hybrid" like the Highlander.

 

Please don't make PRIUS a brand. If Toyota wants to have a separate line just for hybrids, find another name or use HSD.

About hybrid minivan, does anyone know of a site that we can petition to bring that Estima over to US?

 

I agree completely. Over a 5-year period, Toyota should plan on transitioning all of its models to the HSD and drop the ICE-only versions. Keep them all called "Toyotas". Model names can be retained or changed, but keep them all under Toyota.

The HSD is an engineering marvel which is far better than what the other car companies have been able to develop. It could prove to be extremely popular, and a great business decision, to convert all Toyota models to the HSD. I can see no reason why the public would want to buy ICE-only cars anymore, other than the notion that they are a little less expensive in the short term.

 

I'm starting to change my opioion. At first i thought maybe it was a good idea. But now I'm thinking the hybrid division (for lack of a better term) is becoming synomus with Toyota. Why fiddle with that? Can anyone say...Edsele LOL

 

Get Toyota to bring its hybrid minivan to America!

 

Since this was from 2007 should we assume that Toyota didn't listen or is it being considered at all?

 

The Scion was such a bad idea, it isn't available in Canada, where we revel in four cylinder cars. I first saw it at the Detroit Auto Show and wondered what the heck it was. I loved it, but wondered what the heck it was. I like cars, read lots about cars and had never heard Scion was coming. Unless you travel in the US, or live in a border city like I do, you would never be exposed to one.
Are all the dealerships associated with a Toyota dealer, or are some free-standing? In Detroit there are some weird associations with dealers selling Big 3 and imports on the same lot.

 

I don't really have an opinion of Prius as it's own brand but please-oh-please! can we get a hybrid minivan. We'd get one in a heartbeat. Once our Prius is here, the minivan will only be used for hauling dogs more than two dogs...that's usually long road trips so anything to save on gas would be welcome!

 

The only thing we can safely assume is that the petition reached Toyota's HQ. What they've done with it is anyone's guess.

 

Wanted: a Prius for the delivery industry | csmonitor.com

A Staples delivery van. A utility company bucket truck. An electrically assisted cargo tricycle. These aren’t the kinds of vehicles that leap to mind when we hear the phrase “hybrid vehicle.â€


But that’s changing.

 

I think they will eventually use the "Prius brand" as their replacement word for Hybrid and call it Prius Synergy Drive.
Examples would be like
Toyota Camry base, LE, XE, XLE, or Prius Synergy
Toyota Matirx base, S, or Prius Synergy

 

If you are wanting Toyota to produce Prius trucks, vans, minis, etc, etc, etc....

Just where is Toyota going to get the battery packs to produce significant quantities of new vehicles? They cannot produce enough Prius' Hatchbacks now. How are they going to produce new lines or perhaps a better question, why? It costs money to tool for new lines. You don't just make something just because you can. It has to make economic sense.

Now perhaps they are going to use the Prius name for introducing developing technologies such as hydrogen cell, compressed gas, full EV. That might make some sense.

 

Regarding battery packs, if you read the thread on hybrid sales for Sept. (referencing this greencarcongress news item), you'll see that Toyota is saying they determined awhile back how many Prius to make, and scheduled that many batteries. Supposedly they will be able to ramp up their battery production next year.

As far as tooling lines and such, that is why they're apparently delaying the start of the Mississippi plant while they sort out the product mix that could be part of the brand (if it is one).

It would be neat if the Prius brand is where they do their high-efficiency experimenting, including natural gas, PHEV and BEV. Hopefully they'll be smart enough to stay away from hydrogen. I bet GM wishes they still had their billion dollars they spent on hydrogen in the last decade. Maybe some of that research could be applied to the Volt, but I bet very little of it was applicable to anything marketable. I bet Iceland is thinking the same thing about their big experiment with fuel cells as well.

 

It seems to me, that with recent statements that Toyota is seriously considering making all Lexus vehicles hybrids, why wouldn't that be their premium hybrid brand? They already have ads touting "the power of H".

Anyway, I don't think that a hybrid brand is necessarily the right way to go - the right thing to do is to produce more hybrid specific models that are designed from the ground up to be hybrids so they are able to better work around issues of battery placement so that cars like the Camry hybrid don't get penalized so much in the trunk space department which is often a deal breaker for a lot of people.

For example, my mother in law wanted a Civic and considered the HCH for a minute, but quickly decided against it when she realized that the rear seats didn't fold down and the battery used up a sizable chunk of the trunk (and she regularly uses the fold down seats and available trunk space on the normal Civic she did get).

 

How so? A-BAT concept has 4 cylinders ICE. That should be good for a mini-van as well.

 

Toyota will be able to produce 700,000 batteries in 2009 and 1,000,000 in 2010... helps when you build them yourself as supposed to buying them from the market. They have JV with Panasonic that they control.

People dont seem to realize that 1,000,000 hybrids means mass market penetration in many, many models. Heck, I am sure they produce less than 1mil V6/V8 engines right now, and they certainly produce less diesels than 1mil (probably around 700,000)... so come 2010, HSD will become 2nd most produced powertrain from Toyota. Right now, 50% of Toyota hybrids are sold in the USA.... if that stays the same, that means double the number of hybrids sold in less than 2 years...