The Toyota Prius is struggling.
That’s not terribly surprising. Fuel prices are low. Efficient hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and electric cars are available at virtually every new car dealer. The Prius has lost its early adopter buzz.
Oh, and the 2017 Toyota Prius is a grotesque little creature, shaped for the wind; not your eyes.
Toyota sold fewer Prii in America last year than at any point since 2004. In 2017, Toyota expects to sell far fewer than in 2016.
Making matters worse is the 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid I’m driving this week. The Ioniq is $2,485 cheaper than the Prius. The Ioniq is, at the very least, less unattractive. The Ioniq’s interior is both more attractive and more straightforward. And hear ye this: the Hyundai Ioniq is rated at 55 mpg city and 54 mpg highway; better than the Prius’s 54/50 ratings.
But the Toyota Prius has witnessed the arrival of a direct competitor from a major passenger car player before. Yes, the Toyota Prius saw the Honda Insight and the Toyota Prius killed that Honda dead.
Will the Toyota Prius become a serial killer and murder the Hyundai Ioniq, too?
(Matt Posky’s first drive review of the Hyundai Ioniq was published last month. I’ll be reviewing this Ioniq Hybrid Limited shortly.)
The Ioniq, of course, is no Honda Insight. When the second-generation Insight was achieving 41 mpg on the EPA combined scale, the Prius was rated at 48.
The Insight required more time than the Prius to accelerate from rest to 60 miles per hour, possessed 27-percent less cargo volume, and consequently generated only 73,222 U.S. sales during its entire tenure. The Prius has averaged 130,000 annual sales since the second-gen Insight’s arrival.
The Ioniq presents an entirely different situation. Besides the fuel economy credentials, the Ioniq is at least as quick as the Prius — and feels punchier in the real world – and also features 8-percent more cargo capacity and marginally more passenger volume.
But does it matter how good the Ioniq is? Or does it simply matter that the Prius is; that the Prius exists? The Prius represents standard operating buying procedure for consumers in this category.
Can the Hyundai Ioniq, soon to be available as an all-electric and plug-in hybrid, succeed where the Honda Insight couldn’t?
Or will the Hyundai Ioniq follow the Honda Insight’s five-model-years-and-out path, killed by the Toyota Prius?
Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.
I think Hyundai will sell some Ioniqs. It’s rated for higher fuel economy than the Prius, has Hyundai’s “Stellar” warranty and it’s cheaper and less weird looking inside and out.
I think Hyundai (and Kia, for that matter) will do well if their quality stays high and their fuel economy estimates don’t turn out to be bogus. When gas prices rise again, they seem to be well positioned.
Prius had never been a conventional looking car but they have proven to work reliably and efficiently. They also felt cheap and tinny on the road but that never stopped many from buying them. Personally, I find the latest Prius to have gone too far in the weirdness direction. We are past the early adopter phase with hybrids and there wasn’t a need to make the Prius, um, stand out so much.
I think the Ioniq will do just fine, especially with the inevitable rise in fuel prices that will come.
The Ioniq looks like a normal car and not a piece of equipment from the Starship Enterprise. It is also cheaper than the Prius and offers the bonus of slightly better fuel economy.
Honda is the reason the Insight failed, not Toyota.
Rightly said! The Insight wasn’t capable of even 10 meters reverse drive without starting the engine, and the performance was appalling. Honda never believed in it. BTW, where is the i-DCD?
This. The 2nd gen Insight was a steaming pile of donkey dung, especially compared to the Prius it was meant to compete with.
The biggest thing that the Ioniq has going against it is that it’s not a Prius. Hyundai needs to advertise the bejeezus out of this thing to make sure people shopping for a Prius know that it’s not only an option, but a better option.
The biggest thing that the Ioniq has going against it is that it’s not a Prius. – This is true.
The biggest thing that the Ioniq has going for it is that it’s not a Prius. – This is also true.
The Prius may be SOP for the traditional hybrid market and the Ioniq probably won’t capture very many of these people. But the Ioniq is poised to wipe the floor with the Prius when it comes to new hybrid customers, who are not early adopters and have different motivations than the traditional hybrid crowd.
Similarly, taxi and Uber drivers don’t care about brand and image, and aren’t trying to save the world. They want vehicles that are cheap to buy, cheap to operate and reliable as an anvil. If the Ioniq and Niro can win over this crowd, it’ll be game over. I think they have a shot.
Yes, Honda has inexplicably failed a few times with hybrids. That’s not Toyota’s fault.
Hyundai have got one thing right with the ioniq, it comes as a hybrid, a plug-in hybrid or full electric. Your choice.
Toyota can’t bring themselves to make a full electric Prius. Inexplicably stopped making the first plug-in prius for over a year just as sales were picking up.
Toyota have the weight of its brand and are well established as the primary hybrid manufacturer. That will carry them some way, but competition may start eating away at their lead.
The *pile* of snow would be a subtextual comment?
“The *pile* of snow would be a subtextual comment?”
I think you been played, OMP :-)
Look at the high part right under the front wheel… see the guy in the Louis XIV wig?
Tell me that’s not subliminal Parti Québécois propaganda.
I dunno – I see Barbara Bush for some reason.
oooooH – time for my oatmeal!
I thought that someone had “hit and run” the Michelin man.
While the Ioniq IS more appealing, at least to my eye, I seriously doubt any Toyota buyer would choose one of these over a Prius.
Personally, I won’t buy a Kia or Hyundai, but would consider a Toyota or Honda, if I were in the market for a hybrid, but would most likely choose either a Volt or Bolt – preferably a Volt. I’m a Chevy guy, after all, especially since I like what they have been producing these last several years.
A more direct question would be ask if the Ioniq dethrone the Prius and that answer is a quick NO.
However to answer you question: The Ioniq is not the Insight and is a more thought out vehicle. I expect it to sell better than the CMax, Volt and some others in its class even with the down turn of EV/hybrids and cheap gas.
Call me a Luddite, but having mounted enough of them I still want a spare tire on my vehicle. The Ioniq doesn’t have one, whereas some Prius trim levels still do.
The list of vehicles without a spare tire is quite long nowadays.
http://publicaffairsresources.aaa.biz/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Vehicles-Sold-Without-a-Spare-Tire.pdf
I had to pay dearly for the spare donut tire in my Optima Hybrid, which normally comes without one.
It’ll all come down to reliability. That’s always been the hole card for Toyota in general and the Prius in particular.
The Ioniq has been on sale in Europe since last year. The DSG transmission in the Ioniq and Niro, which seems to be the main reason for the Ioniq’s superior powertrain performance, also has reportedly had some problems. If that proves true, Toyota’s lead is safe — although the Prius is still in dire need of an emergency refresh.
As long as the transmission issues mentioned during TTAC’s review and by TonyCD are corrected, then doesn’t the Kia Niro deserve to be the winner in this segment?
Absolutely no, the Toyota Prius will not kill the KIA and Hyundai hybrids. Toyota killed the Honda Insight because the Insight was a POS compared to the Prius.
Congrats to the Koreans for bringing out another hybrid car. The more the merrier and the better for competition and the end consumer. I will only buy hybrids from now on out and they will be Toyotas. We currently have a Prius and Rav hybrid and they are just great. And toyota takes very good care of us and always has. So i think there will be buyers for the new Ioniq but true blood hybrid buyers will probably stick with toyota. As far as looks goes, I have gotten used to the new car’s looks. Since i no longer care what people think of me or what i drive, if they don’t like my cars they can go screw themselves. I want comfort, safety, reliability and good mileage. Looks are just skin deep and don’t really matter in the long run. this holds true for women and cars…maybe more so for women [and men too]. The good looking women i was married to,,,really made my life hell. Kinda like some flashy cars i have owned. Nuff said.
Yesterday I was driving Miss Daisy (mother) around town to do some errands. As I waited my turn to leave a parking lot, I noticed the strange and ugly car in front of me, and looked closer for a badge. It was a new Toyota Prius.
I’m not one usually affected by automotive style, but the rear view of the Prius was so ugly, it made my groin hurt for the next four hours.
Thanks Toyota.
The front end of the Prius did the same thing to me. It almost looks like a mistake or some prototype that accidentally made it to production.
You’ll need ice for your groin once you see the rear end with its lights on.
Sort of a moot question, because there is little reason to believe that any of the hybrids are actually profitable. Low gas prices mean that manufacturers need to keep lowering the price gap between hybrids and conventional equivalents, which means they likely aren’t covering development costs and the costs of the battery, electric motor and other hardware components, much less making a profit. I’ve seen analysis that suggests the Prius was marginally profitable, but that was when sales volumes were higher than today, so whether Toyota or Hyundai wins or loses the hybrid sales race only determines the degree to which they are losing money for shareholders.
Does anyone have as much proof that hybrids are as profitable as non-hybrids for car manufacturers as they have proof that hybrids are money-losers?
The latter may have as much reality as the urban myth that hybrids required frequent expensive battery replacement.
Here are a few links that suggest hybrids are not profitable:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jpim.12022/full
http://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJTPM.2015.069219
http://www.carbuzz.com/news/2016/3/15/Famously-Unprofitable-One-Of-GM-s-Biggest-Money-Pits-Was-Made-During-Bankruptcy-7732516/
Two of these articles require access that I choose not to arrange. Their precis remind me of the article that falsely purported to prove that a Hummer has less environmental impact than a Prius. It was a collection of bs.
The CarBuzz article seems to boil down to an odd claim that R&D should itself show a profit.
Would GM be able to make the Bolt if it had not created the Volt? Is the Bolt “viable”?
How much money do car companies make on racing programs? Who mentions a problem with this?
If hybrids are cash sinks, why do we see a continual increase in the number of hybrid models offered for sale?
Toyota has sold over 10 million hybrids. What possesses them to pursue such madness?
I still don’t see clear proof that hybrids are money-losers. Until I do, I will regard the claim as false.
Hybrids exist purely because of CAFE and its equivalents in other parts of the world. They aren’t profitable, and they aren’t popular with consumers unless fuel prices rise and/or they are subsidized. If they were cheap to build and popular with consumers, all vehicles would be hybrids.
There is a stigma associated with Hybrids. A local talk show host test drove a number of cars over several weeks and talked about what he liked and didn’t like. One dealer put him in a Avalon Hybrid and he commented that of all people he actually like the hybrid. He said I can’t believe I’m saying this but I really like the way the Hybrid drives and he ended up buying it.
The point is many people avoid Hybrids because of the preconception that they are cars simply designed to comply with regulations, as you assert is the case. The reality is somewhat different.
Stingray, that may be why they were brought to market, but it’s not why they sell. A proper strong hybrid (C-Max, Camry) is smoother, quieter, quicker, and more economical to fuel and maintain than its gas-only sibling.
Yep!
Can we officially say that the Prius has hit its “Ovoid Taurus” moment with this generation? The design is so unattractive that its breaks through as ugly to “normal” people (non-car enthusiasts). So that means…everybody. EVERYBODY thinks the Prius is ugly. Hardcore enthusiasts, owners of previous-gen Prii, people in NYC who’ve never driven a car, young children, the old lady from the Buick commercial. Everyone. It takes some seriously bad design to do this.
This Prius needs to go down with the Edsel, the ’96 Taurus, and the Aztek as a model in which the styling alone is the reason for such poor sales. While the Edsel and Aztek were new models with not much to lose, this Prius has the most in common with the Taurus, as it’s a model which has historically led its category and then drops a styling bomb out of the blue that causes people to look elsewhere on looks alone.
Also, it seems Toyota is increasingly seen as an “old person’s” car among younger people, hence all the Subaru love.
The Ioniq / Niro could not have launched at a better time (for them). This is Prius’ weakest moment in its history.
So true. Just as the Prius became a mainstream, acceptable, normal car it went all crazy, transformer, robot looking. As hybrids have now become common place having an ugly one is not how to win customers. The Insight, like many recent Honda’s, was half backed so it DOA. The Ioniq should do fine but I think the Niro is going to clean up since the general public loves all things CUV. Toyota needs to stuff the Prius drive train into their CHR thingy like immediately.
Actually, it could be the Kia Niro that kills the Hyundai Ioniq, just as the Kia Sedona killed the Hyundai Entourage a decade ago.
The Niro doesn’t have the cool fastback shape of the Ioniq, but it has a much nicer and more useful interior, and the CUV-ish look.
The Sedona didn’t kill the Entourage, at least not in the way you think. What held the Entourage back was it was a more expensive rebadge of a not-quite-there product. The Ioniq and Niro have very little in common besides the powertrain components.
As much as I hate the Prius design ever since 2010, I will say this:
a business acquaintance related as to how he had bought a Hyundai and his wife bought an Accord. As he put it, “We know who has the longest warranty. We also know who has the better car.”
‘Nuff said.
The Insight was Honda getting fooled by all the know-nothings on sites like this who insisted the Prius only sold well because it “looked like a hybrid”. Hyundai seems to have learned part of the rest of the lesson, at least.