TOKYO (AP) -- Toyota's hugely popular Prius ranked as Japan's best-selling car in August, keeping the top spot for the fourth consecutive month. The Japan Automobile Dealers Association said Toyota Motor Corp., the world's biggest automaker, sold 21,669 Prius cars in the month. Honda Motor Co.'s Fit compact was No. 2 in August with 10,927 units sold. Toyota's Vitz subcompact, which is marketed overseas as the Yaris, came third in August auto sales, the association said. Honda's Insight hybrid -- a direct competitor with the Prius -- was No. 4 in August sales. Honda sold 7,900 Insight cars in August. Japan's overall auto sales in August rose for the first time in 13 months to 198,265 units, the association said Prius top-selling car in Japan for 4th month - Yahoo! Finance . .
We can add to this the Dashboard, USA hybrid sales report: August 2009 Dashboard: Altima Hybrid and Insight Post Strong Sales | Hybrid Cars So looking at the Prius, the USA and Japan customers:21,669 + 18,886 = 40,555 50,000 capacity ~= 81% of all Prius As for the Insights:10,927 + 4,226 = 15,153 Prius+Insight = 55,708 hybrids Together, the Prius and Insights are running at nearly 0.5 million cars per year. Not enough but apparently the limit of production ... a good thing. BTW, these are complementary vehicles. Insight and Prius sales do not appear to be fratricide in part because both appear to be running at their production limits. Although the Insight is not as popular in the USA where many customers are often physically larger (and often overweight,) an Insight sale does not leave a Prius gathering dust, unsold on a car lot. In practice, both cars are replacing gas-only vehicles ... a good thing! Bob Wilson
