Toyota confirms only one Prius for Europe
Katsuaki Watanabe, current president at Toyota Motors, has confirmed the rumors we've been hearing for the last few weeks that the automaker plans to continue selling the current version of the Prius alongside its newer 2010 sibling in Japan. The current 2009 Prius will continue on unchanged, as far as we're aware, but will see its price reduced by a few million yen to match that of the new Honda Insight. We'd heard that this dual-Prius plan won't be echoed in the United States, and now Toyota has confirmed that it won't happen in Europe either.
Autocar has an unnamed source that's mentioned an interesting rumor that we hadn't heard before. One possible reason that Toyota is selling the older Prius at an attractive price may be due to a glut of unsold vehicles due to slow sales caused by the global economic downturn, but that's nothing more than speculation.
[Source: Autocar]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
NeilBlanchard 12:09PM (3/27/2009)
Hi,
So, that means that only the 2010 (3rd gen) Prius will be sold in the USA and Europe?
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Throwback 12:39PM (3/27/2009)
"One possible reason that Toyota is selling the older Prius at an attractive price may be due to a glut of unsold vehicles due to slow sales caused by the global economic downturn, but that's nothing more than speculation."
It may be speculation, but if the 2 Toyota dealers I drive by daily is any indication it makes sense. They both have had 7-8 cars each on their lots since January.
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bvz 12:55PM (3/27/2009)
Only one Prius for all of Europe! Wow, can you imagine the scheduling conflicts?
"Um... there's this guy in Germany who wants to use the Prius... can he have it on February 19th, 2028? He only needs it for about 25 minutes, after which France can have it back. What do you say?"
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Herm 5:33PM (3/27/2009)
They should offer a diesel Prius in Europe.. they dont mind the extra pollution..
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DigitalBoy 3:23AM (3/28/2009)
"a few million yen"? You guys (ABG) keep acting like there are 1000 yen per dollar, but it's more like 100. Even if the Insight were $5000 cheaper, that's still only a half-million yen.
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