REPORT: Toyota claims 40,000 pre-orders for new Prius
by Jeremy Korzeniewski on Apr 15th 2009 at 3:43PM 
2010 Toyota Prius – Click above for a high-res image gallery
The well-publicized battle for hybrid sales supremacy between Honda and Toyota has taken yet another intriguing turn. According to the Nikkei newspaper in Japan, Toyota is expecting to take 40,000 preorders in Japan for its new 2010 Prius hybrid ahead of its official debut in May. For the sake of comparison, the Japanese automaker sold a total of 73,100 Prius hybrids in all of 2008.
More importantly, rival automaker Honda managed to sell about 18,000 copies of its latest Insight hybrid in its first month on sale. By all accounts, Honda was delighted to move that may Insights – the automaker had predicted that it would only sell about 5,000 units in the first month that the hybrid was available in Japan.
A few months ago, Honda made a big splash by pricing the smaller, slightly less fuel efficient Insight a few million yen (or a few thousand dollars) below the starting price of the standard-setting Prius. In response, Toyota announced it would keep the previous-generation Prius around for at least another year and dropped its price to match the Insight.
Earlier this month, Toyota set the starting price for the new 2010 model at 2.05 million yen ($20,750), which is just about the same as the mid-level Insight. The next chapter: the upcoming announcement for U.S. pricing on the 2010 Prius (Insight starts at $20,470) Let the games continue.
Gallery: 2010 Toyota Prius - First Drive
[Source: Reuters]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
jharlan 3:53PM (4/15/2009)
18,000 Insights per month adds up to a pretty decent number.
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Speculawyer 4:07PM (4/15/2009)
Ugh. The Prius is nice but we really need to move toward plug-in cars folks. Bring on the Th!nk City, the Aptera, and the Volt!
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Dave 6:08PM (4/15/2009)
Prius plug-ins should be available fleet customers later this year.
Hopefully they'll start selling them to end customers some time next year.
Throwback 4:22PM (4/15/2009)
While I would not mind a BEV, I think the demand for them will be small for years to come. Some of us live in cold climates. Just this morning I had the wipers, headlights, rear defogger and radio on. What would that do to my range? Also, we Americans buy on price until plug-ins can match the price and performance of today's cars, sales will be limited.
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Tohe 5:17PM (4/15/2009)
I see a lot of companies offering hybrids due to the pressure exerted on them by the Prius, but it is not about offering hybrids, it is about the MPG and so far no other hybrid matches the Prius' fuel economy.
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Herm 5:51PM (4/15/2009)
The Prius may have lower cost drivetrain than the Insight.
The Prius replaces the Insight's transmission with a low cost "power splitting device", a small geared device, with no clutch or torque converter. That has to be a substantial savings.
The Prius uses two motors and two controllers, both bigger than the single motor/controller that the Insight uses.. but these devices are easily mass produced in Vietnam, like any other modern electronic device or cheap floor fan.
Not sure if the Insight uses an alternator, the Prius does not use one, neither use a starter.
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