Toyota offered only a fully loaded Prius PHEV Z in Japan until recently, but now, they are offering a stripped-down Prius PHEV G with no front corner radars (no FTCA, LCA, and BSM with active steering help). It will also have no powered hatched, no seat heater, no large screen, etc. 新車300万円台！ トヨタの「めちゃ"お買い得"プリウス」発表！ 「高性能モデル」なのに"70万円"安い！ ちょっとシンプル装備がちょうどいい「PHEV G」どんなモデル？ | くるまのニュース
Wow!!! 3 million yen at today's exchange rate is only $19K US Prius could dominate so many markets with a Gen5 Prius priced like that. Though I suspect this is isn't ever going to be avialble outside their homeland. Makes me wonder if there's some kind of subsidy / tax break Japan is giving them to get the price that low?
Lol... Toyota Stealership in the US would love to sell these for 1% less than existing US Gen5. Because you know... fair is fair when you're a Toyota Stealership right? And it's not like you aren't getting a discount, right? And if you're willing to be on their waiting list for 10 to 50 months to get one right? I mean USA Toyota cares about their customers, right?
They drive on the right hand side of the road in Japan, just like Australia, so to get one imported into the USA would be a major battle I'd imagine ..... especially with the latest change in govt ...... T1 Terry
Sounds like an effective means of testing the waters for entry-level plug offerings. Radar, FTCA (Front Cross Traffic Alert), LCA (Lane Change Assist), BSM (Blind Spot Monitor) with active steering, power tailgate, heated steering-wheel, power driver's seat, wireless charger and a large screen are all unnecessary for basic transportation. When the industry turns ugly... which we can all see coming... they'll have some real-world feedback of what can be omitted without sacrificing anything related to plugging in.
I would like to have as many safety features as possible in the base trims, including the front corner radars, even though many owners did not find them particularly useful. A crucial safety feature missing in the base trims (LE and SE) is the auto-on lights. So many people drive on the freeway without any lights on in the dark. Chances are that you will forget to turn on yours as well one day.
Meanwhile BYD in China is selling EVs for slightly less than this, which is why all the other car makers want to ban BYD in as many markets as possible.
SE in Canada has the Auto on headlights, auto highbeams, but no way to completely shut off all the lights at night, which is very annoying.
Right, Canada requires that. Also, DRL was standard in places like Norway when the nights can be very long long before in the US.
I'd be interested to know what the additional cost of including the alphabet soup. Maybe 30 years ago, I read that about 2/3s of the cost of an average car was the materials cost. Elon Musk once said that as manufacturing improves, the cost of manufacturing approaches the cost of the raw materials.
Japan is well known for its on road customer testing new models/ideas, that is why their domestic market is full of vehicle the rest of the world will never see and there are no spare parts available .... if it breaks, return it so we can find out what went wrong and we'll supply you with a replacement. This was the way the first Prius models were released and where a lot of the "grey" imports come from into Australia. There was a 180 model of something sporty, that was only released in Aust as the 200 model .... there were no spares for the grey import 180 model, a failed water pump was enough to put it off the road until a solution was designed and fitted ... or it went to the crushers, no one wanted them if they didn't drive ..... A lot of engines had no parts available, something as simple as a head gasket or a valve or valve spring meant the engine was scrap, yet the cheapy importers would ship in container loads of these cheap quick swap engines when the original one failed ..... worked until there were no more available because the Japanese car manufacturer abandoned that design .... T1 Terry
