Prius
Shortage: Another kink in Toyota's hybrid armor?
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
A
Prius shortage, again?
Just a few years ago, if you were in the market for a Toyota
Prius, you had to add your name to a list and be the
first one to your dealership as soon as your salesman
called - if he or she even called. Those days might be
coming back.
"Our volume on Prius was up 67% last year," said
Toyota GM Bob Carter. "That was a supply-restricted
67% increase. That's 181,000 cars. We can't repeat that,
no way, even though the demand may be there. We just can't
keep up. So you will see much more moderate growth because
of the supply."
Why does it seem that Toyota is slipping?
Numerous times Toyota has claimed that they want to sell
1,000,000 hybrid
vehicles per year within just the next couple of
years, and yet they are having problems with hybrid
production when they are only a fraction of the way to
their goal?
Even worse, for the last year or so, there have been
terribly conflicting stories coming out of Toyota
regarding its hybrid programs. For example, yes, the third
generation Hybrid Synergy Drive will be powered by lithium
top execs would say one day, a few days later lithium was
on hold. Yes, hybrids are the future, then they are not.
What kind of message is Toyota trying to send when top
executives at the company regularly contradict each other?
Suddenly, Toyota is starting to look like a stumbling
giant.
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