According to Japan Automobile Dealers Association, Toyota Prius is still top sales of Japanese car market in January 2010 with 22.306 sold well before Honda fit sold 13.058, in spite of technical glitches, though this time not because of a bad accelerator pedal but of its break system.
According to Sankei Newspaper, Prius is equipped with 2 brake systems, hydraulic and regenerative, the latter used to convert the kinetic energy to an electricity. When the road is frozen or wet especially in winter, ABS (Antilock Braking System) starts to function in order to avoid a wheel lock, but it acts only on the hydraulic brake and not on the regenerative, hence a strange feeling that the brake may be not responding during a small laps of time.
Toyota's spokesman assured that this problem should be resolved by modifying the software since the beginning of this year. He responded to the present journalists why Toyota carry out this fix without any announcement, that it should be a product improvement so it doesn't deserve a general recall.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Panic purchase of a new hybrid "Toyota Sai"
According to Japan Automobile Dealers Association, Toyota Prius with 208.876 sold has been ranked at top of all the new cars sales in Japan for year 2009 by beating Honda Fit with 157.324 sold, followed by 117.655 sold of Toyota Vitz at the same period. (if the statistics includes subcompact cars sales, Suzuki Wagon-R takes the second place with 201.528 sold in 2009)
This amount is a considerable figure because the third generation of Prius has been available in Japan only since the last May, though the sales has been boosted thanks to eco-incentives of up to 196.800 yens.
By the way, hybrid cars are so popular in Japan that many people should have ordered a Toyota Sai (Prius had a wait list of 6 months because of a supply problem of lithium batteries ), before its official launch on December 7, 2009, for the initial deadline of eco-incentives on March 31, 2009 was approaching. Now it is extended another 6 months until September 2010, so they could wait quietly for several months before being delivered.
Moved by a 2400cc gasoline motor and able to run 23km per liter, Sai is Toyota's third hybrid only model launched after Prius in May and Lexus HS250h in July, and its price lies somewhat between those two models: its cheapest model costs 3,38 million yens versus HS250h 3,95 millions and Prius 2,05 millions.
Toyota also plans to launch a hybrid subcompact car in 2011, able to run an astonishing 40km par liter, so it could complete its product range.
This amount is a considerable figure because the third generation of Prius has been available in Japan only since the last May, though the sales has been boosted thanks to eco-incentives of up to 196.800 yens.
By the way, hybrid cars are so popular in Japan that many people should have ordered a Toyota Sai (Prius had a wait list of 6 months because of a supply problem of lithium batteries ), before its official launch on December 7, 2009, for the initial deadline of eco-incentives on March 31, 2009 was approaching. Now it is extended another 6 months until September 2010, so they could wait quietly for several months before being delivered.
Moved by a 2400cc gasoline motor and able to run 23km per liter, Sai is Toyota's third hybrid only model launched after Prius in May and Lexus HS250h in July, and its price lies somewhat between those two models: its cheapest model costs 3,38 million yens versus HS250h 3,95 millions and Prius 2,05 millions.
Toyota also plans to launch a hybrid subcompact car in 2011, able to run an astonishing 40km par liter, so it could complete its product range.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Success of New Prius has beaten any expectations
According to Japan Automobile Dealers Association, Toyota Prius with 22.292 sold has been ranked at top of all the new cars sales in Japan for June 2009 by beating Honda Fit with 12.016 sold, followed by 9.092 of Toyota Vitz and 8.782 of Honda Insight, another hybrid hit.
According to Sankei Newspaper on July 23, Toyota has up to now received more than 230.000 Prius's orders so customers have to wait for their car delivery beyond the next March 2010, the dead limit to receive the government subsidy of 250.000 yens for the purchase of a fuel efficient car and scrap of a car of more than 13 years old.
New Toyota Prius is so popular now in Japan that used Prius with a premium price of 500.000 yens may be sold, never seen in the car market destined to a large public and not collectors, while Toyota is considering to divert a part of exportation to the inland needs
But, the boom of hybrid car sales is not so euphoric for Japanese car makers because the sales of no hybrid cars remains weak. In fact, car dealers are complaining that people are not interested in no hybrid cars at all. They come to a show room and ask you "Do you have a hybrid car to sell". If you respond "no", they immediately quit you. This "hybrid only" behavior of consumers may be disastrous for the car makers who don't have hybrid cars on their catalog such as Nissan.
According to Sankei Newspaper on July 23, Toyota has up to now received more than 230.000 Prius's orders so customers have to wait for their car delivery beyond the next March 2010, the dead limit to receive the government subsidy of 250.000 yens for the purchase of a fuel efficient car and scrap of a car of more than 13 years old.
New Toyota Prius is so popular now in Japan that used Prius with a premium price of 500.000 yens may be sold, never seen in the car market destined to a large public and not collectors, while Toyota is considering to divert a part of exportation to the inland needs
But, the boom of hybrid car sales is not so euphoric for Japanese car makers because the sales of no hybrid cars remains weak. In fact, car dealers are complaining that people are not interested in no hybrid cars at all. They come to a show room and ask you "Do you have a hybrid car to sell". If you respond "no", they immediately quit you. This "hybrid only" behavior of consumers may be disastrous for the car makers who don't have hybrid cars on their catalog such as Nissan.
Monday, May 18, 2009
New Hybrid Prius Released in Japan
On May 18, 2009, Toyota launched the third generation of Hybrid Prius in Japan. This new version improves the performance of a previous version by 10% (from 35.5km instead of 38km per liter) while its price has been lowered from 2.330.000 yens to 2.050.000 yens (ca. 21.600 US$ or 15.800 euros in Japan) for a basic version.
Toyota proposes this competitive price in order to compete with Honda Insight which has been already available in Japan since last February with a cheapest price of 1.890.000 yens, while the previous Prius may remain available at a bargain price of less than 2.000.000 yens.
According to Japan Automobile Dealers Association, Honda Insight with 10.481 sold has been ranked at top of midsize new cars sales in Japan for April 2009 (the 4th position if you include compact car sales in statistics), while 80.000 new Hybrid Toyota Prius has been back-ordered before its release (you have to wait 4 months to get it if you order now).
With this price range (you pay about 10% more for a car purchase of the same category but go 30% further with the same amount of gasoline), there is no doubt that hybrid cars should dominate the green car market promoted by President Obama for the next couple of years, because FEV (full electric vehicles) or FCHV (fuel cell hydrogen vehicles) are still handicapped by a weak battery capacity or/and a low number of charging stations
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)