Toyota Delivers 400,000 Hybrid In Europe

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Crikey, I didn't realise they'd sold that many in Europe but it's all good news I guess. An interesting part stuck out was that 10% of Toyota's sales in Europe are hybrids.

http://media.toyota....brid-in-europe/

[Chris Dance]

Just shows how popular the hybrid cars are getting. I still meet folk though who think that my Prius has to be charged up and and is no use for long distances. Also that the batteries are not proven reliable!!!!The Prius is the best car I have ever owned. It is also no surprise to me that the Auris is getting huge sales.

[duncerduncs]

It is also no surprise to me that the Auris is getting huge sales.

3354 Auris hybrids were registered last year, compared to 4886 Prii.

Can you tell I'm bored?

[timberwolf]

3354 Auris hybrids were registered last year, compared to 4886 Prii.

Can you tell I'm bored?

I'd have guessed the Prius would have had double that number. I wonder why it is so low, other Hybrids or recession?

[Grumpy Cabbie]

I thought the same as the Prius has normally hit about 8,000 UK sales a year - maybe 10,000. It could be the recession but also the stats for sales are still out of date and don't include Q4 of 2011.

http://www.howmanyle.../combined/prius

It would be a real poke in the eye if the Auris hsd took hybrid sales from the Prius. D'oh.

http://www.howmanyleft.com/combined/insight

Just been looking at the Insight stats and they too are slowing a little but certainly not like the Prius. My personal theory is that the Prius is just too d**n expensive now. It was £18,500 two years ago (Insight £16,000 & Avensis £17,000 in 2009) and now it's £21,055 for the base Prius and the Insight £16,995 and Avensis £17,700 (base models used for comparison in all cases).

I nearly bought an Avensis two years ago but looking at the Prius decided to take a punt and was pleased I did. Would I buy one today considering the massive difference in prices? No, it's not worth it, even considering the fuel savings.

Perhaps it's the London centric attitude of Toyota UK who sell the hybrid on its ability to enter central London for free, but there are many other models than now do that too and what about Prius sales for the rest of the population? I'd be curious to see the breakdown by region between 2009 and 2011 as the price went up.

[duncerduncs]

It would be a real poke in the eye if the Auris hsd took hybrid sales from the Prius. D'oh.

Is it not a win win for Toyota?

Mr and Mrs Blogs walk into their local Toyota dealer looking to buy a Prius...

... "it's a bit expensive" says Mrs Blogs, "not a problem" says Mr T salesman "you can have an Auris hybrid for less and it's built in this country"

"wonderful" says Mr Blogs "I'll take one in pearl white"

And everyone lives happily ever after!

[cuius]

UK probably following the trend in USA with hybrids:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2588dd22-0d8f-11e1-9bb9-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1klgCrWD0

Sorry went to FT site via Google - requires registration - however first couple of paragraphs sum it up:

"Sales of hybrid petrol-electric cars, regarded not long ago as the cool cutting-edge of vehicle technology, are plunging due to the weak US economy and dramatic improvements in traditional internal combustion engines.

US sales of Toyota’s Prius, by far the most popular hybrid model, were 9.4 per cent lower in the first 10 months of this year than in January to October 2010. By contrast, overall light-vehicle sales rose 10 per cent."

[cuius]

UK probably following the trend in USA with hybrids:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2588dd22-0d8f-11e1-9bb9-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1klgCrWD0

Sorry went to FT site via Google - requires registration - however first couple of paragraphs sum it up:

"Sales of hybrid petrol-electric cars, regarded not long ago as the cool cutting-edge of vehicle technology, are plunging due to the weak US economy and dramatic improvements in traditional internal combustion engines.

US sales of Toyota’s Prius, by far the most popular hybrid model, were 9.4 per cent lower in the first 10 months of this year than in January to October 2010. By contrast, overall light-vehicle sales rose 10 per cent."

[Grumpy Cabbie]

It would be a real poke in the eye if the Auris hsd took hybrid sales from the Prius. D'oh.

Is it not a win win for Toyota?

Mr and Mrs Blogs walk into their local Toyota dealer looking to buy a Prius...

... "it's a bit expensive" says Mrs Blogs, "not a problem" says Mr T salesman "you can have an Auris hybrid for less and it's built in this country"

"wonderful" says Mr Blogs "I'll take one in pearl white"

And everyone lives happily ever after!

Hmmm, how can it be good to stop selling 8,000 of the Prius to then being out the Auris hsd and sell 4,000 but at the expense of reducing the Prius from 8,000 to 4,000? It's good for British jobs but wouldn't it be better to continue selling 8,000 of the Prius AND 4,000+ of the Auris hsd?

Just saying :)

[RelaxedDrive]

It would be a real poke in the eye if the Auris hsd took hybrid sales from the Prius. D'oh.

Is it not a win win for Toyota?

Mr and Mrs Blogs walk into their local Toyota dealer looking to buy a Prius...

... "it's a bit expensive" says Mrs Blogs, "not a problem" says Mr T salesman "you can have an Auris hybrid for less and it's built in this country"

"wonderful" says Mr Blogs "I'll take one in pearl white"

And everyone lives happily ever after!

But the boot is so small compared to the Prius!

This is why I got a (last model year) 2nd Gen Prius secondhand, the new prices are just getting silly.

[dee s]

The price of cars manufactured in Japan has risen due to the exchange rate. Not sure if this is having an effect on sales though.

[duncerduncs]

Hmmm, how can it be good to stop selling 8,000 of the Prius to then being out the Auris hsd and sell 4,000 but at the expense of reducing the Prius from 8,000 to 4,000? It's good for British jobs but wouldn't it be better to continue selling 8,000 of the Prius AND 4,000+ of the Auris hsd?

Just saying :)

I see your point Grumpy, but we live in a world where money is tight and credit isn't the easiest to come by so selling 8000 Prii and 4000 Auris HSD's probably wouldn't happen.

Toyota would rather sell you something than nothing at all!

[johalareewi]

Mr and Mrs Blogs walk into their local Toyota dealer looking to buy a Prius...

... "it's a bit expensive" says Mrs Blogs, "not a problem" says Mr T salesman "you can have an Auris hybrid for less and it's built in this country"

"wonderful" says Mr Blogs "I'll take one in pearl white"

You also have "It's a bit bigger than I thought" or "I don't want the neighbours to think we are tree huggers" says Mrs Bloggs. In which case, there is the smaller, looks like a normal car, Auris and it's cheaper and built in this country.

[Hybrid Harbour]

Mr and Mrs Blogs walk into their local Toyota dealer looking to buy a Prius...

... "it's a bit expensive" says Mrs Blogs, "not a problem" says Mr T salesman "you can have an Auris hybrid for less and it's built in this country"

"wonderful" says Mr Blogs "I'll take one in pearl white"

You also have "It's a bit bigger than I thought" or "I don't want the neighbours to think we are tree huggers" says Mrs Bloggs. In which case, there is the smaller, looks like a normal car, Auris and it's cheaper and built in this country.

That's exactly why I bought the Auris, I wanted the economy, no road tax and congestion charge, but did not want the "eco warrior" stigma.

Also as its just for me and the Mrs I did not need the extra space of the Prius.

[Cyker]

It will be interesting to see how the Yaris HSD does; I reckon it will be a big seller for us city folk who think the Auris and Prius are too big, although Toyota have shot themselves in the foot a bit there by making the Mk3 so large!

Still, it should be lighter than the Auris and Prius which is what saves the most fuel

Hmm, I wonder how it would to in the TSS...

[kithmo]

A friend of mine has a petrol yaris and he already gets well over 60 mpg on a run, so I think the hybrid Yaris may be difficult to sell to existing Yaris owners, unless they are gadget orientated.

[Cyker]

Not in city driving I bet :P

I average about 60mpg in my diesel for my mostly-town driving, but it is much better on A-roads and motorways (But frankly you wouldn't want to be in a Yaris for long journeys! )

For pure town it's probably closer to mid-50s, but in town is where the HSD Yaris will do best (And Motorways worst I suspect). I reckon you could easily get 70mpg+ in town with a HSD Yaris unless they've pushed the weight up too much.

I just hope they don't sacrifice the peppiness of the car for mpg; I love that I can drive mine like a maniac and it'll respond (1.4 D4D in a car that's only slightly heavier than an Aygo = Hilarity. It's just a shame it handles like a drunk whale ), or I can drive like a granny and it'll return great mpg :)

I've not found many cars like that; Usually they either have great performance and crap mpg, or great mpg but drive like slugs :(

[Grumpy Cabbie]

The thing I like when people quote town/city mpg's is they go off their total average trip mpg which just happened to indicate 60 mpg after that long 200 mile run on a flat straight A road, they slip through a couple miles in town and then low and behold their town average was 59 mpg.

A great way of getting a true mpg in town is spend 10 hours a day in nothing but town driving like I do and then you'll see your true reading. A cold start, crawl along at 5 mph whilst the car is warming up, wait at traffic lights numberous times etc. There is no way anybody will be getting 60 mpg average on this basis. You might sneak it upto 40 mpg before watching that drop like a stone whilst waiting at the lights. My true town mpg's are about 48-52 mpg, whereas a diesel manual Mondeo gets about 35 mpg, a petrol manual gets 30 mpg and a diesel auto gets about 25-28 mpg. Makes me laugh when customers would ask what I get mpg wise and I'd say about 50 mpg in town and they'd say that was crap, their Jaguar diesel gets 45 mpg etc etc. Ha ha ha. I'd put money on it that it wouldn't under the same like for like circumstances.

Another benefit of the hybrid system is that the engine is off in slow and stationary traffic and yet will still operate your a/c when stationary - unlike the latest dreadful stop/start systems most manufacturers are introducing. That system is just to bodge the official mpg figures; as I can guarantee most people will soon get fed up of it when their 12v batteries start dying off due to winter town driving with stop/start whilst running their headlights, cd, phone etc. At least the hybrid has a 500v 1.5 kwh (that's like operating a fan heater for 1 hour non stop) Battery to power this.

But this is the same old argument of hybrid verses the eco petrol or diesel brigade. They've never lived with a hybrid and as such we can never convince them of the merits. Hybrids are overly complicated nonsense in their eyes, when actually when you know your facts, the complete opposite is true.

Rant over :)

[Grumpy Cabbie]

..... but in town is where the HSD Yaris will do best (And Motorways worst I suspect). I reckon you could easily get 70mpg+ in town with a HSD Yaris unless they've pushed the weight up too much.

I've not found many cars like that; Usually they either have great performance and crap mpg, or great mpg but drive like slugs :(

The Yaris hybrid should get good motorway mpg's too. It is quite a common misconception to think hybrids only do well in town driving because people assume it's running mostly on electric then. This is sort of true to some extent but the hybrid system blends the petrol and electric output to get the best mix of economy and performance. Without boring you with the full technicalities the hybrid can also get great mpg's on the motorway run (despite most motoring journo's misunderstanding how this can be so).

The Toyota hybrid system has one petrol engine and two electric motors (electric motors are part of the hybrid transmission). These electric motors have different uses at different times switched by the hybrid system, but basically there is a small one and a larger one. When driving at speed one is always charging the big HV Battery and the other is offering assistance to the petrol engine. That way the engine isn't having to work as hard as it would in a normal car and you can see that even on a 300 mile run, the car is always getting some assistance from the electric motors and thus gets better economy and mpg's. The HV Battery system is always charging and discharging all the time, thousands of times a day.

Hope that helps explain motorway/higher speed benefits of hybrids.

[johalareewi]

A friend of mine has a petrol yaris and he already gets well over 60 mpg on a run, so I think the hybrid Yaris may be difficult to sell to existing Yaris owners, unless they are gadget orientated.

Bet your friend's Yaris is a manual not an auto.

My GF has an auto Yaris and averages about 42mpg.

My GF's sister had an eco Yaris 3 year's ago which could regularly do 60mpg but it was a manual with a 1L engine (3 cylinders I think).

[kithmo]

Yes it is a manual.

Don't get me wrong, I do think the Yaris Hybrid will appeal to existing Auto owners, but my point was, I can't see someone like my friend paying the extra premium for the hybrid system when he's happy with a manual Yaris that is cheap enough to run as is.

I'm not knocking it, I think it's a great idea and would buy one in a flash if I decided to downsize, but there again I love the technology.

[Jan&tone]

Kithmo, I think you're right, it really all depends on where the price is pitched. Pretty obvious that there will be a premium for the hybrid Yaris, but whether it will price itself out of the market remains to be seen. Going by the Auris and Auris HSD I think both versions of the Yaris will sell, but to different markets, possibly the non-hybrid to the youngsters and the hybrid to us oldies :)

[Hybrid Harbour]

Seeing as the Auris hybrid is about £2,500 more than a similar spec Auris I would have thought that the Yaris hybrid will be priced around £16,000, as a normal t-spirit Yaris is £14,500.

Anyone who thinks that the new model is going to be cheaper than the existing ones is clearly deluded.... :D