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Prius Top-Seller Again in Japan in July; Up Almost 4x Year-on-Year
7 August 2009
Toyota’s Prius was the top-seller in Japan in July, with 27,712 units sold—almost quadruple the 7,058 units sold in July 2008, according to data from the Japan Automotive Dealers Association.
| Monthly Prius sales in Japan since January 2007. Click to enlarge. |
This marks the third month in a row that Prius was the top-selling car in Japan. For the first seven months of the year, Prius sales in Japan total 79,122 units. The Honda Fit is still the volume leader from January-July, with 82,592 units total.
The Fit was a distant second to Prius in July, with 17,003 units sold, followed by the Toyota Vitz (12,366 units) and the Honda Insight (10,210 units).
In the UK, where Prius went on sale this week, Toyota had taken more than 2,000 advance orders had been taken. Almost 10% of these were placed through the scrappage scheme.
August 7, 2009 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
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Posted by: mahonj | August 08, 2009 at 12:34 AM
This is really unthinkable just a few years ago, that a full HEV can outsell a conventional ICE vehicle. It goes to say, that if you make 'em real good and sell 'em cheap enough, people will lineup to buy 'em.
Posted by: Roger Pham | August 08, 2009 at 01:37 AM
The sales have been boosted by a special tax incentive for fuel efficient cars. The waiting list in Japan is now 10 months. The incentive ends in april 2010. So when you order a Prius now, you won't be eligible for the incentive unless Toyota can boost production.
Posted by: Anne | August 09, 2009 at 10:32 AM
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That is pretty impressive.
The Japs have really "got it".
Once you buy one of those, you can more or less forget about fuel prices.
And it is just a "normal" hybrid - no PHEV stuff.
Nonetheless, it would be nice to add "micro PHEV" ability where you could charge its small battery at home at night, and it would learn that you do this, and use less petrol to keep the battery charged up.
Pity they are so expensive in Ireland.