Toyota Motor expects advance orders for the redesigned third generation Prius hybrid to reach 40,000 units in Japan by the time it goes on sale in mid-May, a local newspaper said on Wednesday.
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Such a pace would see it easily overtake Honda’s new Insight rival, according to Reuters.
Toyota sold around 73,100 units of the current Prius in Japan in 2008, the news agency said. It added that local newspapers, including the Chunichi and Nikkei, reported that Japanese dealers had received orders for more than 20,000 units of the new Prius. Orders were expected to reach 40,000 units ahead of the car’s debut, the Nikkei said, citing an unnamed Toyota official. A Toyota spokesman declined to confirm the reports.
Late in March, Toyota was reported to be planning to continue selling the current Prius alongside the new model at a reduced price in Japan to help counter the successful new Insight, which had by then drawn 21,000 orders.
Media reports said Toyota would sell the next generation Prius at JPY2.05m (US$20,940), or roughly US$3,000 less than its smaller, less powerful and less fuel-efficient predecessor but company president Katsuaki Watanabe declined to confirm that at a new model launch in Japan.
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By GlobalDataHe said the redesigned car had come close to achieving a target of reducing the hybrid system’s cost to a quarter of the first version, which went on sale in 1997, while costs were also cut on other components and modules in the car.
“The price will take into account the cost cuts, and the competitive environment at the time of launch,” he said. “That Honda has come out with a wonderful car like the Insight gives us a big impetus to try to be more competitive.”
Saying the old Prius model would be sold alongside the new version, in Japan at least, Watanabe added: “They will have different engine sizes – 1.5 litres and 1.8 litres – and we figure there will be demand for the two to co-exist.”
Some local reports also said in March that Toyota would take the unusual step of lowering the price of the current version to JPY1.89m – the same price as the Insight and sharply lower than its current price of some JPY2.33m.
Reuters said Toyota had now set a global sales target of 400,000 units in 2010 for the new Prius, which achieved 38km per litre versus 30 km/l for the Insight in ‘official’ Japanese market fuel economy tests.
Honda sold about 18,000 Insights in the car’s first month on the market, 3.6 times its monthly sales target of 5,000 for the model, the report added.
Its UK unit has said it expects to sell 7,000-8,000 cars a year.
