Toyota to launch sub-Prius hybrid baby
Compact hybrid-only model ahead from Toyota in 2011Toyota announces plans for a hybrid-only subcompact model to slot in beneath its wildly successful Prius.
The Japanese giant will use the upcoming Detroit motor show to debut a new subcompact hybrid concept model, leveraging the Prius's market and consumer mindshare dominance.
The car is destined for sale in Japan by late 2011 and elsewhere the following year.
Importantly to the way the car is marketed, it will follow in the footsteps of the Prius, as a designated hybrid-only model rather than a modification of an existing Toyota or Lexus model.
It's a strategy that has worked to spectacular effect with the Prius, which accounts for around 75 per cent of Toyota's total hybrid sales in the US, where it also offers hybrid Camrys, Highlander SUVs and Lexus models. US sales of the first hybrid-only Lexus, the compact HS250h, have been modest by comparison.
The upcoming smaller car fills an obvious gap in making use of the brand equity the company has built around the Prius name.
A smaller model with an even fuel consumption figure would only strengthen the halo effect it has already garnered from the Prius, which wrestled with Honda's hybrid Insight through 2009 for the title of Japan's best-selling car.
According to The Detroit News, sources inside Toyota have told media the company sees big sales in it, with initial annual production set at around 150,000 units. Parts sharing will help keep a lid on production costs, allowing the company to put it in showroom with a mass-market price tag.
The company has embarked on complex and no doubt costly program to boost its presence in the hybrid market, with stated plans to offer hybrid options across its entire lineup.
Toyota's collaboration with battery maker Panasonic is expected to pay major dividends in 2010 with a hefty increase in the production of a million nickel-metal hydride batteries a year.
Toyota is quite happy at this point to persist with ageing nickel-metal hydride batteries in its existing hybrid powertrains, while it works on smaller, lighter and more powerful lithium-ion packs for the plug-in Prius set for sale in 2012.
In keeping with the powertrain diversification trend, Toyota is also working on an electric-only vehicle also slated for market in 2012.
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