|
Toyota has responded to record demand for its groundbreaking Prius hybrid
electric car by announcing it will increase production by 50 per cent.
The increased production should reduce the waiting list for Australian
buyers, who are currently being quoted up to five months for delivery. This
scenario is repeated internationally with Japanese and US buyers waiting over
six months for delivery.
With no sign of a let-up in demand globally, Toyota will boost production
from 10,000 a month to 15,000 a month from the first half of next year.
The additional 5000 vehicles a month will be built at a second plant in
Japan.
It is the second increase announced since the launch of the second-generation
Prius last October.
In January, Toyota raised its sales target for 2004 from 76,000 units to
130,000 worldwide, an increase of 71 per cent.
Global sales of the environmentally friendly petrol-electric Prius passed
200,000 in May, representing a huge saving in greenhouse gas emissions.
Despite limited supply in Australia, Prius last month outsold vehicles such
as the Holden Caprice, Ford Explorer, Mitsubishi Verada and Nissan Pathfinder.
Prius sales year-to-date total 533 locally compared with 135 for the same
period last year, an increase of 295 per cent. This excludes the nearly 300 back
orders yet to be delivered - a total increase in demand of over 600 per cent.
In the United States, industry analyst JD Power and Associates rated the
Prius as the fastest-selling car in the country, spending less time on dealer
lots than any other model sold by a major carmaker.
Toyota president Fujio Cho said that the innovative hybrid-electric
powerplant is the result of a challenge made to Toyota’s engineers in the early
1990s to “go and develop a vehicle for the twenty first century”.
“Nobody knew what they would create,” Mr Cho told an automotive seminar in
Michigan on August 3.
“We developed this new technology because it will make a big difference (to
the environment), first as a specialty vehicle and later in a wide variety of
mainstream vehicles.
“From the beginning, we decided that design, engineering, parts production
and assembly would be done almost entirely in-house.
“The downside of this strategy was that such a project would not only be very
expensive, but would also drain our corporate engineering resources.
“And recovery of our investment would take time, requiring patience.
“Today, nearly seven years after the first Prius rolled off the line, we have
achieved all our initial goals.”
|
