Third generation Prius an instant hit in Japan

[steven johnson]

It remains to be seen if the newest Prius will surge in the US as it is doing in Japan.

But at Toyota's Tsutsumi plant, managers have the opposite problem: meeting demand for the third generation of the Prius, which has become an instant hit in Japan and is rolling into American showrooms now.

Honda Motor started selling its Insight hybrid in March in Japan and the United States, while Mitsubishi Motors said last week that it would market the iMiev, a compact electric car, starting in July.

Toyota executives hope the strong start by the Prius will be repeated in the United States, where some dealers have been accumulating waiting lists for more than a year. Plans for a new hybrid car factory in Blue Springs, Miss., originally scheduled to open in 2010, have been suspended since December as sales flagged. Though Toyota executives remain tight-lipped, analysts say that the automaker, with its Japanese production lines already so busy, could soon make a decision about the plant's future.

Prius sales in the United States, which soared last summer as gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon, fell sharply along with gas prices during fall and winter. But it is still the company's third-best-selling car, behind Camry and Corolla. Toyota devotes three manufacturing lines in Japan to the Prius - two at Tsutsumi, and another at a subsidiary assembler. At full capacity, the two plants are able to make about 50,000 Prius cars a month, Toyota executives say, about 1.5 times the pace needed to meet its global sales target of 400,000 units.

Even Amid This Slump, Demand for Toyota Prius Is Insatiable

[Kablooie]

1. I've driven one. More solid than the previous model and 50mpg in standard mode. Econ mode higher.

And more Jetson type features than before.

[Maat]

2. I have a 2006 and get 50 MPG.

I love it.

[Fotoware58]

3. How Much??

I wonder how much a Prius would cost if we didn't have to watch those endless expensive commercials!!