Toyota Makes More Hybrid Cars as Gasoline Price Rises - Toyota Motor Corp., the world's largest carmaker by market value, boosted production of the Prius gasoline-electric car by a third in April, taking advantage of surging oil prices that boosted demand for fuel- efficient vehicles. Bloomberg
With the high demand and long wait lists for the Prius it would seem that surging oil prices were not a prerequisite for Toyota to significantly increase production. :!:
A few notes on things from this article: Am I mistaken? I thought Toyota's goal was already 130K Prius for production year 2004. (Or was that 2005?) Interesting... that's the first time I've seen someone quote the Prius' price from the higher-end model (e.g., package #9) instead of the ~$20K base price. Backing up the information that the Prius isn't selling that well in Europe (due, probably, to competition from even more fuel-efficient car models, like the smart car.)
There are only 5000 units for the whole of Europe in 2004. The first 2500 sold in 4 months of the year. Current waiting list is 10 months and growing fast. So I would not agree the demand is low in Europe. The 3 year marketing plan shows a budget of 9 million Euros to promote the Prius in Europe with intended sales target of only 3000 units (so target has been increased sicne the marketing plan was written!). I have seen TV adverts over the last week. Shame they cant provide the cars quick enough. :x Smart car :lol: :lol: :lol: What a joke that thing is.
