Featured Toyota dealers increase requests for Prius Prime as sales exceeds expectations.

pip's certainly would have done much better in 50 states. again, hard to understand toyota thinking.

 

If Prime is anything like PiP, the East Coast had big deals in the Fall of 2012.

 

All the PiP's might have been sold, eventually. There were Dashboard numbers for them between the model's last year, and the arrival of the Prime. There was also steep discounts on the car on the East coast in order to move them.

It sold well in California with the HOV access, but there was uncertainity of that being available for the Prime when the dealers likely had to place their orders. Considering that, and what the PiP was with Toyota's handling it, dealers were likely cautious.

As for the article title, Prime sales are exceeding dealer expectations. Keep in mind Toyota was predicting 30k sold the first year.

It's easy when you remember Toyota is a Japanese company. Besides the lack of infrastructure for home charging in areas, BEVs were mostly written off by the government and auto industry there when NiMH was state of the art. It was felt only short range city models would have any chance. So they have been collectively been focused on hydrogen FCEV for some time.

Just look at Toyota's in house BEV they were planning to sell for proof of this; the iQ EV. Being tiny is a sales hurdle in the US by itself, but the EPA range was under 40 miles, and I think it might have been priced higher than the iMiEV; a bigger tiny car with over 60 miles of range.

 

was it that soon? no wonder i'm still smarting.

 

i still don't understand. are you saying that after being in the u.s. for over half a decade, toyota doesn't understand our market?

 

i think u mean ½ century there mr. Rip Van Winkle ....

 

I think they do understand our market:



Note that they have the #1 and #2 selling non-trucks, the #2 selling compact CUV, the #1 selling compact pickup, and the #3 selling three-row vehicle in the US. (Oh, and consider the take rate of hybrids on the Camry, RAV4, and Highlander. 4.8% of Camrys, 11.7% of RAV4s, and 8.4% of Highlanders sold in February 2017 were hybrids, using Good Car Bad Car's data for overall sales, and the HybridCars dashboard for hybrid sales.) And, they've got a full-size pickup to compete against the domestic Big Three full-sizes, although dated powertrains are hurting it in the fuel economy department, the lack of a heavy duty version means it's not even considered for many towing workloads, and the lack of an American badge hurts sales as well.

I think they've decided that they're better off focusing on their home market with an eco car, where the Prius Liftback is the #1-selling non-kei car, and the Aqua (Prius c) is the #2 selling non-kei car.

 

so you're saying they design for japan, tweak them negatively, and ship to the u.s., and care little about how they sell here? they sure make a big fuss with introductions.

 

Keep in mind that Toyota was also involved in lobbying for looser fuel economy standards here.

I'm saying that they design eco cars for Japan, and tweak them to try to not lose money on them while using them solely to comply with US law. Conversely, they design US-specific gas guzzlers.

 

gotcha, light dawns on marblehead. makes it easier to understand why they are such a strange company.

 

And those of us with a clue, add aftermarket:

• receiver hitch
• 1 kW 12V-to-120 VAC inverter(s)
  • 3 kW traction battery-to-120 VAC inverter(s)

The only thing I haven't found are hub-powered, 15" wheels . . . but I'm looking.

Bob Wilson

 

I just searched 500 miles from Chicago. 62 Primes. But the results included cars up to 600 miles away...

So are these data points in reference to sales volume or availability? I'd like to know the allocation numbers to different areas.

 

Chairman of the Board in Japan and US top management are anti-plug-in. This is also political. If plug-ins are sucessful then hydrogen does not deserve the tens of billions of government money toyota thinks they need to be established.

The current president Akio Toyoda is fairly neutral, and thus the plug-in people were at least able to team with tesla on the Rav4 before the chairman poisoned it, and then produce the prime.

Toyota is very political, and I hope the sucess with the prime, will lead more to follow the president and have an open mind. Toyota is traditionally a fast follower not an innovator. I think the prime is a slow follow, but maybe the next generation they get it more right.

 

which leads me back to the increasing rebates for a car they cannot keep on the lot...

 

They do for the main sellers here. For alternatives beyond the ICE, they tow the party line in Japan. They aren't the only one. Honda has that 80 mile Clarity BEV coming out after the Clarity FCEV.

Is this a chicken and egg problem?

There is pent up demand for a Toyota PHEV, but this usually only bumps up sales in the beginning. Toyota needs to move more Primes for the ZEV program and to meet their 30k annual sold target.

 

simply a guess but . . . CARB credits ? ?
.

 

That's how I got mine.

They're advertising the heck out of the Prime on TV around here. Toyota also have a big sale going on, 1 For Everyone. A couple of months ago, it was the Toyotathon.

 

What you don't think they will lease the 3000 mirai they need for credit. ....
All Toyota Mirais Recalled For Software Glitch

oops 1,100 2015-1/2017 looks like its extremely unlikely they lease 1900 in 11 months even with these new eco bill boards

Toyota Mirai Billboards In LA, SF Will Literally Clean The Air

So maybe not for the carb credits, but those rosy fuel cell projections about everyone wanting one if the government just gave them a bigger subsidy, which it did, turned out to be false.

Prime is a much more desirable car. I don't think they need the discounting.[/quote][/quote]