European Toyota hybrid sales pass the 50,000 mark
The European diesel-dominated market is showing signs of slowly warming up to hybrid vehicles. Toyota Motor Europe recently announced that the cumulative European sales of both Toyota and Lexus hybrid vehicles passed 50,000 units. A total of about 41,000 Prius hybrids have been sold since it went on sale in Europe in 2000. Sales of the Lexus RX400h and GS 450h have reached a total of over 10,000 units in just 17 months of sales. While 50,000 hybrids sold might seem like an impressive number, the worldwide cumulative sales of Toyota and Lexus reached almost 635,000 units on April 1. This indicates a relatively low penetration in Europe compared to other markets, such as the United States, with over 260,000 Prius cars sold. [Source: DueMotori]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Xavier 11:18PM (6/26/2006)
The extremely high price of that vehicle in Europe (300000 EUR in Spain, for instance) makes it a real non-saver, since you can buy any new generation diesel car that runs on non-sulphur diesel or biodesel for less that half of the price.
The mileage of that car is not yet lower that any diesel compact. So why would you buy such a thing?
Hybrids won't catch in Europe (IMHO) until they are mated to diesel engines - Hybrids improve gasoline vehicles mileage but not yet diesel. And when it comes to calculate how much the car really costs, current hybrids are just simply not worthy.
Reply
Glenn A. 9:33AM (6/27/2006)
The British price is not far out from "conventional" cars, in a nation which now buys about 40% diesel cars (way up from a decade or so ago). Yet, the Prius hardly sells there.
This, despite the fact that "petrol" costs about $6 per U.S. gallon equivalent in the UK right now, and diesel is about $6.50.
This, despite the fact that the Prius gets better mileage than a SMART ForTwo with 45kw engine - and has 5 seats instead of 2 seats, plus is not charged for the London congestion charge, whereas the SMART is charged for it.
I sometimes despair for the ignorance of the Brits and the Europeans.
But then, they were the people who have collectively spoken out against Americans for being so "polluting" - when in fact, we Americans started to drastically clean up our environment in the early 1970's, and in the fall of 1974, we adopted catalytic convertors on all cars.
The Europeans didn't adopt catalytic convertors on all gasoline cars until the early-mid 1990's.
Kind of like the pot calling the kettle black, for the Euros to point fingers at us, eh?
Not to mention the point that the Prius pollutes about 1/20th as much as a diesel car, literally.
Reply
Dr. Greenthumb 12:11PM (6/28/2006)
The europeans are a funny bunch, especially when it comes to judging the "Evil Empire". Personally, I think it's just penis envy.
On hybrids, don't believe all of the hype. Cost of the vehicle aside, the advertise fuel ecomony seldomly holds up in real world driving.
Dear World,
I think the US approach to hybrids is both smart and practical. The sale of hybrids for personal use, is more a politically correct statement that a sound economic or ecologic decision.
Here is how the typical American uses his/her automobile. A 15 to 45 minute commute and the car sits all day. Reverse the process in the evening, and that's it. At this rate most of them will never recover the difference in the cost of the hybrid.
The European and Japanese approach makes economic sense for Honda and Toyota.
The US approach has been to focus on commercial (heavy use) vehicles. There is currently about 10,000 buses across the US that are hybrids. These vehicles are run approx. 15 - 20 hrs. per day. The emissions improvement is a 90% over standard diesel busses. The air quality in NYC has benefitted from this. Toyota needs to sell 40 Priuses to match the gains of 1 bus. I wouldn't be caught dead in one of those little cockroaches.
FedEx and UPS joined forces with Eaton to produce hybrid delivery trucks. These vehicles spend 8 to 10 hours per day on the road.
Reply