xcel
02-06-2007, 06:01 AM
Prius is already Toyota's third best-selling car in the U.S., behind the Camry and Corolla. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=amsylM9c__U4)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Prius_II1.jpgAlan Ohnsman - Bloomberg - Feb. 5, 2007
Toyota Motor Corp., the leading seller of hybrid autos in the U.S., is offering its first low-interest loan and lease incentives on the gasoline-electric Prius to boost sales by at least 50 percent this year.
Toyota is luring buyers with interest-free loans for 24 months and three-year leases as low as $219 a month, Ernest Bastien, vice president of U.S. vehicle operations for the Toyota City, Japan-based automaker, said in an interview today. The incentives began last month and will continue indefinitely.
``We're going to promote affordability and availability,'' Bastien said. Initial ads touting the deals will be expanded this month.
The incentives mark a shift in Toyota's strategy. For the past three years, months-long waiting lists have prompted some dealers to mark up prices by $1,000 or more. Now, additional manufacturing capacity has allowed Toyota to boosts its sales goal for the Prius to at least 160,000 this year, from 106,971 in 2006.
The premium charged by dealers over the suggested retail price ``is one of the biggest complaints for consumers about Prius,'' said Jesse Toprak, director of market forecasting for Edmunds.com, an automotive data Web site based in Santa Monica, California.
The move also reflects Toyota's effort to recast the Prius as a car for all drivers, not just those focused on the environment, Bastien said. He dismissed suggestions that the incentives reflected weakening demand.
Base Price
The 2007 model Prius has a base price of $22,175, excluding options such as a navigation system and rear-view camera.
Last month, the average Prius sale price fell to $25,340, from a peak of $26,473 in May 2006, according to Tom Libby, an analyst for research firm J.D. Power & Associates of Westlake Village, California.
Toyota has a sales goal of 430,000 hybrids worldwide in 2007, more than any other automaker. It wants to sell 1 million by early next decade.
Don Esmond, senior vice president of U.S. sales, told dealers today at the National Automobile Dealers Association in Las Vegas that the company's target for overall U.S. hybrid sales, including the Prius and Camry, is 260,000.
Toyota's U.S. sales unit is based in Torrance, California. The company's American depositary receipts fell 81 cents to $130.46 at 4:26 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have risen 27 percent in the past 12 months.
Supply
The Prius supply at Toyota dealerships began growing in late 2006, based on an increase in the number of days needed to sell, or ``turn,'' a vehicle, Libby said. That figure was 24 days last month, up from seven days in October.
``There has been a softening in Prius prices already,'' Libby said in an interview.
Declining prices and a larger supply at dealers will sway consumers who were interested previously but didn't buy one, Bastien said.
``There is huge interest out there, and we think that better affordability and better selection at dealers is going to get a lot of people off the fence,'' he said.
Previous Lease Deal
Toyota in 2003 briefly offered a lease promotion on Prius to sustain sales of an outgoing model. A redesigned version went on sale the same year.
Critics of Toyota's hybrid strategy, including Nissan Motor Co.'s Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn, have said the technology is too costly for manufacturers and offers too few benefits to consumers who have to pay at least $3,000 more for hybrids than equivalent models with only gasoline engines.
``I'd have to assume Toyota has managed to get economies of scale with production to get cost out of their hybrid system that no other company has at this point,'' said Libby. ``It really puts them much further ahead of the pack.''
Toyota's share of the U.S. hybrid market in 2006 was 76 percent. It was followed by Tokyo-based Honda Motor Co. at 15 percent and Ford Motor Co., of Dearborn, Michigan, at 8.9 percent.
Prius is already Toyota's third best-selling car in the U.S., behind the Camry and Corolla.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Prius_II1.jpgAlan Ohnsman - Bloomberg - Feb. 5, 2007
Toyota Motor Corp., the leading seller of hybrid autos in the U.S., is offering its first low-interest loan and lease incentives on the gasoline-electric Prius to boost sales by at least 50 percent this year.
Toyota is luring buyers with interest-free loans for 24 months and three-year leases as low as $219 a month, Ernest Bastien, vice president of U.S. vehicle operations for the Toyota City, Japan-based automaker, said in an interview today. The incentives began last month and will continue indefinitely.
``We're going to promote affordability and availability,'' Bastien said. Initial ads touting the deals will be expanded this month.
The incentives mark a shift in Toyota's strategy. For the past three years, months-long waiting lists have prompted some dealers to mark up prices by $1,000 or more. Now, additional manufacturing capacity has allowed Toyota to boosts its sales goal for the Prius to at least 160,000 this year, from 106,971 in 2006.
The premium charged by dealers over the suggested retail price ``is one of the biggest complaints for consumers about Prius,'' said Jesse Toprak, director of market forecasting for Edmunds.com, an automotive data Web site based in Santa Monica, California.
The move also reflects Toyota's effort to recast the Prius as a car for all drivers, not just those focused on the environment, Bastien said. He dismissed suggestions that the incentives reflected weakening demand.
Base Price
The 2007 model Prius has a base price of $22,175, excluding options such as a navigation system and rear-view camera.
Last month, the average Prius sale price fell to $25,340, from a peak of $26,473 in May 2006, according to Tom Libby, an analyst for research firm J.D. Power & Associates of Westlake Village, California.
Toyota has a sales goal of 430,000 hybrids worldwide in 2007, more than any other automaker. It wants to sell 1 million by early next decade.
Don Esmond, senior vice president of U.S. sales, told dealers today at the National Automobile Dealers Association in Las Vegas that the company's target for overall U.S. hybrid sales, including the Prius and Camry, is 260,000.
Toyota's U.S. sales unit is based in Torrance, California. The company's American depositary receipts fell 81 cents to $130.46 at 4:26 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have risen 27 percent in the past 12 months.
Supply
The Prius supply at Toyota dealerships began growing in late 2006, based on an increase in the number of days needed to sell, or ``turn,'' a vehicle, Libby said. That figure was 24 days last month, up from seven days in October.
``There has been a softening in Prius prices already,'' Libby said in an interview.
Declining prices and a larger supply at dealers will sway consumers who were interested previously but didn't buy one, Bastien said.
``There is huge interest out there, and we think that better affordability and better selection at dealers is going to get a lot of people off the fence,'' he said.
Previous Lease Deal
Toyota in 2003 briefly offered a lease promotion on Prius to sustain sales of an outgoing model. A redesigned version went on sale the same year.
Critics of Toyota's hybrid strategy, including Nissan Motor Co.'s Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn, have said the technology is too costly for manufacturers and offers too few benefits to consumers who have to pay at least $3,000 more for hybrids than equivalent models with only gasoline engines.
``I'd have to assume Toyota has managed to get economies of scale with production to get cost out of their hybrid system that no other company has at this point,'' said Libby. ``It really puts them much further ahead of the pack.''
Toyota's share of the U.S. hybrid market in 2006 was 76 percent. It was followed by Tokyo-based Honda Motor Co. at 15 percent and Ford Motor Co., of Dearborn, Michigan, at 8.9 percent.
Prius is already Toyota's third best-selling car in the U.S., behind the Camry and Corolla.