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TOKYO (MarketWatch) — Toyota Motor Corp. (7203.TO) plans to release a cheaper version of its Prius hybrid car later this year in a bid to compete with Honda Motor Co.’s (7267.TO) more reasonably priced Insight hybrid, the Asahi Shimbun reported Thursday. The paper said that the new Prius will be priced around Y2.05 million, whereas Toyota’s cheapest model of the fuel-efficient vehicle now sells for between Y2.3 million and Y3.4 million.
32 Comments on “Toyota to Launch Cheap(er) Prius to Compete with Honda Insight...”
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this is a nice battle.
OK, thread hijack alert-
I sincerely wish it was Detroit that was threatening Toyota. Not killing them just competing healthily.
GM competitive reality is like a duel between 101 year old man and 38 year old, chosen weapons, broken TV remote vs ten pound sledge hammer. 40 years ago it was other way around and they let it go to this extreme.
New and Improved
With less than half the bullshit.
I don’t care if gas prices hit $30 a Gallon.
I wouldn’t be caught DEAD in a Prius.
Anything that makes hybrid cars a rational investment instead of the overpriced fashion accessories they are today is a step in the right direction.
Price them like the Corolla alternatives they are, including long-term maintenance expenses, and I will be impressed. I might even stop calling them “goofy golf carts”.
Yeah, those non-thinking misfits! How dare they enjoy driving! Criminals! Misfits! To the stake with ’em!
I’d be interested to see from an engineering and beancounter standpoint just where they pull the dollars from.
And where does the $40,000 Volt sit???
@ Edmond
How dare they enjoy driving!
Yeah sure, there’s a lot of driving enjoyment stop-starting in bumper to bumper traffic…..
I don’t think the Prius is too expensive. Hatchback of reasonable size, safest car, excellent reliability,…
People are willing to spend $ 20,000 to surround themselves with more steel, but are not willing to spend $ 2,000 to have significantly better mileage?
when people buy leather seats they never calculate when they will get that money back (never), but when you buy a hybrid you need to make that calculation? At $4 a gallon (which it would be at least if it wasn’t for the recession) it would pay quickly. Maybe I’m a nerd and want to watch a monitor with the battery charge? some people have alloy wheels, boats,… they never get treated like they would be show offs or arrogant.
I wonder if this is confusing Toyota’s plan to keep selling the current version (in Japan) concurrently with than the new, for less money, of course.
“Volt Killers”.
I don’t care if gas prices hit $30 a Gallon.
I wouldn’t be caught DEAD in a Prius.
Esg i thought the volt is among the dead product before launch. DOA. Would love to see some of those batteries removed thus more mileage from the less weight and bigger storage space or what are they going to cut?
@ peoplewatchin04:
I agree. How about an opinion by someone who has actually driven one. I bought a new 09 Corolla as a third car over the summer to use as a daily driver. It’s ok, does the job etc. Never considered a Prius. Some idiot hit me when it was two months old, so I rented a Prius just for the hell of it when the Corolla was at the dealership being repaired.
The thing was pretty cool. It smelled like a computer, had tons of head room, grippy brakes and comfortable seats. The hatch is very useful. And the thing felt fast. You always see people hyper-mileing these things, doing 45 in the slow lane so I assumed that they could not get out of their own way, but I was very surprised by the acceleration. You should see peoples faces when they get dusted from a stoplight by a hybrid. It’s a freakin riot. I put over a thousand miles on it in a week, and I was really impressed with the thing. It has a very futuristic feel to it. And I got over 40MPG driving the snot out of it.
When I got back in the Corolla, the difference was drastic. It felt 100 years old, with its engine running at stoplights, its cheaper feeling seats, and spongy brakes. It is a totally different (read: lesser) class of vehicle. It took a couple hundred miles before I got used to it again.
The volt will be DOA. GM does not have any experience with batteries… and hybrid cars are completely different than electric-only.
Prius batteries are charged to 80% ALL the time. They fluctuate from 70-90% while accelerating and decelerating. Having the battery at 80% makes it live long.
The volt battery goes from 100% to near zero. completely different wear on the battery. there is barely any experience, Toyota and Honda might have the skills and experience to manage it, but they even hesitate. what makes you think that a car maker that can’t even built good gasoline engines (that have been on the market for 100 years) can all of a sudden achieve such a marvel and not have technical problems? Hell, can’t even built good steering that makes the car drive where you need it.
The volt battery goes from 100% to near zero. completely different wear on the battery.
I think you’ll find many reports (eg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Volt) that say the Volt will maintain between about 30 and 80% charge at all time.
It’s probably too late for this generation of Prii and Volts (and Teslas) but battery technology is improving fast …
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7938001.stm
How did GM and the Volt enter this thread. Talk about fixated. You folks need to go outside and relax.
I hope it was sarcasm when the Toyota was cheap and the Honda reasonably priced.
It’ll be interesting to see where Toyota plans to cheapen, uhh, pull dollars in order to bring this cheap, uhh, lower priced Prius to market.
Wind-up windows anyone?
Steel wheels with fakey-do hubcaps?
Hmmm…
I am not a hybrid hater like many here, but I would also really like to see some cars built for efficiency without the hybrid drivetrains.
More cars like the Cobalt XFE.
Or even better. Aerodynamic bodies like the Prius/Insight/Volt with no hybrid components, and with highly efficient engines and 6 speed manual with loping cruising gear.
Highway MPG would be fantastic, city MPG would be very good.
I spend almost no time in stop n go so hybrid is something I really don’t need, or want to pay for.
Why is almost no one doing all the possible actions to make efficient cars without the hybrid part. Results are what matter not specific technologies.
Well said, kaleun.
npbheights, thanks for the 2nd on my nearly exact words to friends when I emailed them in 2004 about why I’d decided to get a Prius (waited
9 1/2 months to get it, too).
I’m more used to it now, but it is really annoying to sit in a car idling wastefully at lights (we still have a conventional auto as well as a 2008 Prius; I hit the “reset” button 18 months ago and traded the 2005 with 48,000 trouble free miles)
I’ve already got 23,000 on the 2008. Incredibly. But it was literally the first 2008 car to arrive in town.
I read somewhere a week or so ago that the “low cost” Prius will be the current 2004-2009 cars, while the slightly up-market cars will the new new 2010 type.
Prius Classic and Prius? Who knows.
Bytor, Hyundai says they are working towards exactly what you are talking about, PLUS they are planning on doing several hybrids (the Sonata will be coming state-side, but Elantra hybrid won’t, since it’s quite expensive – being “gas” as in CNG AND hybrid, apparently)
Hyundai had been planning to introduce turbo-diesels in the US but backed away from that buffet table awhile back. Honda was also planning on a turbo-diesel Accord, but I think that has quietly been also laid to rest.
Did anyone else notice that diesel is now CHEAPER than gasoline? Or is it just a fluke in northwestern Michigan?
When the 40+mpg hybrids hit 12-15k, call me. Until then I’m not really interested.
FWIW: I drive about 5000 miles a year.
I’d like to see them make more efficient cars the old fashioned way. Dump some weight and put a highly efficient engine under the hood. Offer small displacement diesel engines, and offer manual transmissions! Take out some of the stuff people don’t need, and make these cars aerodynamic like the original Insight, and you could get cars to rival hybrid mileage without the complicated (and expensive) powertrains.
@ superbadd75
They already do that too; Smart, Diesel Aygo. Consumers apparently don’t want them in the USA?
But, maybe there’s a way to recover wasted energy in a larger car; hybrid.
@ Robstar
When the 40+mpg hybrids hit 12-15k, call me.
Grab a used Camry Hybrid. Excellent resale and superbly built. One of the most reliable cars on the road. Our company has five in Chicago office, all promised to staff when they are about to be changed over.
Not a problem reported. Very cheap to run, slightly higher entry cost, but higher exit resale (in fact better than average) and likely to hold higher resales when fuel prices climb again.
@ menno
The story I read on Hyundai said they were doing the same as Honda/Toyota. Making a distinct (presumably) more aerodynamic body for their hybrid.
I want that aerodynamic body on a regular drive train to give great highway MPG for little additional cost.
“It’ll be interesting to see where Toyota plans to cheapen, uhh, pull dollars in order to bring this cheap, uhh, lower priced Prius to market.”
You could replace the fancy-pants LCD screen with a manual radio and a simple “charge/assist” gauge on the dash.
I think the price competition is a great thing. It’s possible to de-content just about anything, so making the Prius cheaper shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Nobody said they have to break even on them, just have something to offer at that price point. Also, nobody said the Cheap-us is coming to the US.
I do, however, feel a bit bad for Ford who just got the Fusion Hybrid pulled together and now have a $7-8k price disadvantage to overcome, along with their Detroit reputation…
npbheights
I’ve driven the Prius as well (2 days running around upstate NY gathering goodies for a wedding). It was, quite simply, one of the worst handling cars I’ve ever driven. The electric motor was very cool at first, I agree with that, but I didn’t spend all day jackrabbiting out of full stops. On open back roads, complete with sudden dips and off-camber turns, the Prius delivered dangerously vacant steering feedback, had 90’s Buick suspension wallow (ok, that’s an exageration) and needed to be driven overly cautiously on turn in to avoid understeer. The car is a momentum killer. I’d guess that most of that behaviour is down to the vehicle’s extra weight and the awful stock tires. Toyota’s apparent inability to engineer a competent steering assist and their completely indifferent and lazy suspension tuning surely come in for some blame as well.
I ride in them fairly often in NYC so I can see that appeal. It’s the only intelligent rental choice considering the gas costs, and I like the electric start when I’m being driven home from work (yes to hybrid taxis). In that instance only would I consider the prius superior to other cars.
Maybe Toyota really is following the old GM playbook. Bring out a new Prius, then keep selling the old one as the Prius Classic at a bargain bin price. GM did this with the Malibu and Silverado in recent years.
John Horner: Toyota already confirmed that’s what they’ll be doing in Japan. That’s what this post refers too. Not likely in US, though.
So this one company faces competition from Japan and they decided to do something about it and be competitive instead of trying to steal my money instead? How novel!
I agree they aren’t especially “cool” by most normal criteria. They certainly look boring and form-follows-function and I hate that instrument displaced cluster on the inside. That said, for those of us that live/work in the city (Seattle here), and spend a frustrating amount of time wasting gas at lights and sitting at 0-5mph on the freakin’ highway, knowing that you are getting 50+ MPG is very satisfying.
I would buy a hybrid IF it came in a hatchback or sassy wagon. I am a drummer and need the space.
I am a little surprised about the not-so-great expected mpgs for the Prius. I get over real 47mpg (U.S. gallons) from my 2004 Toyota Avensis Diesel (manual, of course. 5 speeds. The 6 speeds version is slightly more frugal). I must add that I drive very conservatively.
I do my own numbers at the gas station (the on board computer is too optimistic and stops counting when the car is idlind -cheat!-) and the number say I am slightly under 5 liters per 100 km, i.e. 47 US mpg.
The (UK built) on board computer tells me I am doing in the 60s imperial mpg.
The Avensis (not sold in the U.S.) is the same size of the Prius, and to me is a BIG ENOUGH car. I can not understand such a bloated monstrosity as the current US Camry.
Uh, and the car has a very convenient hatch. And a five stars NCAP safety rating.
I am also very annoyed by the waste of my engine running at traffic stops, but I bought used. Used Priuses were more expensive than the Avensis. OTOH I needed a car for a lot of years, and I do not know what´s going to happen in the future to the functionality of 10 year old Prius batteries.