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.
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