Toyota, the biggest player in hybrid-electric cars, has launched a cut price Prius as the Japanese firm fights back following one of the worst years in its history.
Jim Lentz, president and chief operating officer of Toyota USA, unveiled the Prius C at the second day of the North American International Automobile Show (NAIAS) at Detroit's Cobo Center. For a second year in a row the car show has been dominated by hybrid and electric car launches, although sales have so far been disappointing.
The new Prius C will have a starting price in the US of $19,000, and features a 1.5-litre gas engine as well as a 144-volt nickel-metal hydride battery, and will achieve 53 miles per gallon, "the highest city fuel efficiency of any car in America without a plug," said Lentz.
Toyota also unveiled a concept plug-in hybrid sedan, the NS4, that may go on sale in 2015.
Last year Toyota lost its poll position as the world's biggest car seller, as production suffered from the tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster. Prius sales peaked in the US in 2007 at 181,221 and were only at 136,463 last year, despite a 10% rebound in the industry overall.
Lentz said the new Prius would help drive sales higher this year and predicted that deliveries of the Prius in the US would exceed 220,000 in 2012.
"Ten years ago there were two gas-electric hybrids on display here at Cobo. Two. Today, look around you, in nearly every display in every corner of this, the world's premiere auto show, Hybrid technology in its many-and-varied forms has arrived," said Lentz.
"Our industry has not just embraced hybrids, hybrids have energized our industry, offering it a clear road to the future. Perhaps the clearest point of all is that conventional hybrids are the foundation and the necessary first step in advancing unconventional technologies with mainstream buyers," he said.
Volkswagen introduces the E-Bugster. Photograph: Geoff Robins/AFP/Getty Images
As if to underscore his point, Ford, GM, Chevrolet and Nissan, among others, all unveiled new hybrids in Detroit this week. Volkswagen, which beat Toyota in global sales last year, premiered an electric Beetle, the E-Bugster, at NAIAS on Monday. The sporty concept car will do 60mph in 10.9 seconds and have a range of "at least" 110 miles, if it ever gets built.
But so far sales of hybrids and electric cars have been disappointing. Speaking at the auto show Daimler chief executive Dieter Zetsche, who also launched hybrid vehicles, said: "We were always realistic about the speed of change. It will be a long transition to zero emissions. On the other hand if you don't start with high volume production, you won't be in the game. It's a dilemma."
Auto sales bounced back more than 10% in the US last year but sales of "alternative power source light vehicles" rose just 2.3%, according to the analysts WardsAuto. GM's hybrid Chevrolet Volt was NAIAS's car of the year in 2011 but ended the year more than 2,000 cars short of its 10,000 sales target.
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10 January 2012 8:32PM
Definitely a step in the right direction.
10 January 2012 8:34PM
So why does the new Prius have a massive air intake at the front -- like it's got a huge engine under that long bonnet? The point is that hybrids have small engines and can thus rethink the design of a car. That's what VW did with the XL1 hybrid and that's does +300 mpg.
It's a bit like when 'horseless carriages' first appeared: no one knew what they should look like so they made them to look like, well... a carriage with no horses -- though the one in this link is in fact electric.
10 January 2012 8:36PM
That 53mpg is the best America can manage in 2012 is an utter disgrace. The US car industry bloody well deserves to die on its arse for persistent fuckwitted dogma.
10 January 2012 9:07PM
Erm, *sotto voce* read the caption. That ain't a Prius.
sigh...
10 January 2012 9:18PM
Our auto industry was rather pathetic from the OPEC embargo right through the George W years as far as its fixation on building gas-guzzling behemoths, but don't blame them for our government's failure to legislate stricter standards, and the public's preference for giant SUVs. Also, you may not be aware that an Imperial gallon is the equivalent of 1.2 US gallons; therefore, in UK Imperial gallons the car in question gets 63.6 MPG which is quite good for a gasoline-powered car, hybrid or otherwise. And, as a driver here in the US, I can tell you that with all the huge trucks and SUVs on the road, a person would have to be quite foolish to pick for his or her regular car one of those tiny gas sippers that work for commuting in Europe, many of which have in the past been unable, as equipped, to meet US safety standards.
10 January 2012 9:38PM
Whether it's a Prius or not it's still a plug in hybrid very similar to the Prius and will probably be called such. Toyota is announcing a whole raft of cars under this nomenclature almost as a kind of sub-brand.
@Don9000 - Took the words right out of my mouth, U.S gallon is not comparable to an imperial one which makes this Prius actually pretty comparable with europe's finest especially given size and performance.
Also, I know VW are gaining rapidly on GM and Toyota and plan to outdo both by 2015 but I still thought that Toyota were on track to finish 2011 a close second with VW still a bit of a way off in third. Not doubting the writer but I"d love to see a link to the data they are using.
10 January 2012 9:40PM
???? why no photo ??? because it´s ugly like no prius before!!!
http://www.insideline.com/toyota/prius-c/toyota-prius-c-debuts-2012-detroit-auto-show.html
10 January 2012 9:43PM
Ah! Confusing!
But the point still stands, whatever the name. Why make a hybrid look like a big engined gas-guzzler -- why not create a new hybrid look, like the LX1?
10 January 2012 9:50PM
I also forgot to mention: why do the journalists who write these articles not understand what they writing about? Stating the voltage of the battery is totally meaningless -- we need to know what the storage capacity is in kWh.
10 January 2012 9:55PM
maybe they need massive air intakes to cool batteries?
its all very well ignoring things like this on concept cars, but perhaps real world took over ?
mind you, you'd have thought the rear wheel covers which hypermilers use to reduce wind resistance would be at least an optional extra..... though it makes the car look like a 50's concept car..
10 January 2012 10:37PM
Did they mean POLE position instead of POLL position?
I got a Prius in 2010. From what I heard from my dad, after the Japanese factories (both parts and car assembly) were hurt from the tsunami, the price of the Prius was higher because there was a scarcity of them since they were all being built in Japan. So I felt lucky to get one at a good deal when I did.
I really don't understand why more US people don't go with hybrids. People here complain about the cost of gas but drive hideously oversized cars, especially since I usually see one person per car. My first car was a stick-shift 1996 Honda Civic that got 30 - 40 mpg. My Prius can get up to 50 mpg. I could never imagine driving something with 20 mpg!
10 January 2012 10:44PM
Stories of batteries catching fire didn't help.
GM announces fix for Volt battery fire issue
10 January 2012 11:23PM
Toyota wasn't a US company last time I checked.
And 53 mpg is pretty impressive, especially when that's a) US gallons, not imperial ones (would be over 60 mpg imperial) and b) for town driving. My Corolla only gets about 35 mpg imperial under the same conditions, though it is pretty old.
Which cars do you know can do better? Diesel is cheating really, since it contains 15% more energy per litre than petrol.
11 January 2012 7:40AM
I don't know much about hybrid technology, except it is a bit of a misleading avenue to go down, 53mpg isn't that fantastic after all. But definitely all this electric car stuff is a complete waste of time. You plug the car in - to what? Grid power produced by coal burning or - perhaps worse- nuclear power. As anyone with basic physics knows, each time you convert energy you lose efficiency. So you burn coal, producing lots of carbon, to heat water, to drive turbines & make electricity. You then transport that over many kilometres using power lines and then transform it to 240 volts and run it into your battery charger. The battery charger then converts it to battery voltage and uses power charging the batteries. Finally these expensive (in environmental terms) batteries move the car a few km before needing more charging. Let alone the environmental costs of producing a 2 tonne car!
Let's get real and move towards a lower waste personal transport system with real vision.
11 January 2012 8:10AM
Why have all the complexity of hybrid technology and the problems of disposing of the batteries, when a small diesel engine is far more economical?
Americans are hung up on petrol powered cars, although a lot more gas stations in the US now sell low sulphur diesel, since they adapted some of their refineries to produce the fuel.
However there are very few diesel cars on the market. BMW and Mercedes could clean up in the 'States with their range of excellent diesel powered cars, but obviously feel the Americans are still psychologically programmed to believe diesel is a fuel only for farm machinery, school buses and lorries.
11 January 2012 9:24AM
Because:
1. It's not more economical
2. A diesel chucks out nasty pollutants
3. A diesel locks you into Middle Eastern or Russian oil.
11 January 2012 9:28AM
Not surprising electric cars aren't doing well. In Europe, the only one widely on offer is the Leaf, which is misconceived. It's too big for a second car, and doesn't have a range extender that a first car needs for the occasional long journeys.
The Renault Zoe might change things and find a good market as a second car.
11 January 2012 9:53AM
So no picture of the 2013 Prius despite the headline ?
11 January 2012 11:04AM
1. Wouldn't be so sure about that, a VW Passat can do 75MPG and is more comfortable than any Hybrid.
2. Yes, because baterries are made out of fairy power.
3. Batteries lock you to Chinese rare earth suppliers (95% world production)
11 January 2012 11:10AM
The Prius C already has 60,000 pre-orders in Japan before deliveries even start. Sales there are expected to be 12,000 per month.
The Prius C was internally named the Aqua for the Japanese market well before the tsunami and flooding of Thailand, the only other country where Toyota build the Prius.
The standard Prius was the top selling car in Japan in 2009 and 2010 - of all cars, it is the market leader, greatly exceeding pre-crisis US sales let alone the lower US sales since 2007 due to banks not lending money and the US economy contracting.
So the Prius C will sell - it is already sold out for 5 months production in Japan. In Europe it will be the standard Yaris platform with the hybrid powertrain. 63 mpg (imperial) in city driving is fantastic - who would not want that in high petrol cost Europe?
The "air intakes" are simply cosmetic, Toyota are conscious they need to make thier cars look more exciting and drive more dynamically - that's a different issue.
11 January 2012 12:12PM
11 January 2012 1:00PM
Check your facts before mouthing off.
11 January 2012 1:18PM
EnviroCapitalist and others,
Electric cars don't do well (at least in my country, Spain) because they are extremely expensive, not because they are inefficient. Besides, Spain has a hughe wind electric production that could make our country more independent of oil imports.
The Prius, even if it is mass produced, is more expensive than a normal Toyota of the same power. Is more expensive than other petrol cars.
The Nissan Leaf is more expensive, than any car in its segment.
The Renaults are mor expensive and make you pay a monthly instalment of 70€ "for battery maintenance", that is more than I spend on petrol.
In that way, it is impossible to buy them, because a good gas car is much more economic.
Even the chevrolet volt is more expensive than in the us (43000€ vs 42000$).
The car industry doesn't want to change its old fashioned ways, is not interested in this new technology that would make its models obsolete, and consumer more independent of maintenance, spare parts, etc. I would also think that they are in collusion with oil companies to keep this technology out, until they can have their say.
11 January 2012 1:30PM
Electric cars will take off once the manufacturing process has been properly developed. Building a standard combustion engine would be massively expensive if they were building the numbers being built at the moment for electric cars. Unfortunately that requires larger sales and some technological breakthroughs in the best type of engine which is only just happening now. It's not a conspiracy (as suggested by Ramon2), just a natural outcome arising from economies of scale.
A few other inaccuracies - there is no way that a tiny little combustion engine is going to be more efficient at producing energy from oil than even the worst coal power plant. Converting all cars to run on electricity produced from coal would significantly reduce the carbon footprint of private transport and improve human health even more by reducing pollution in cities. Also rare earths are incredibly badly named. China exports 95% of the world market, but unlike oil and the middle east that's because it's the only one that mines it rather than the only one that has it. There are larger reserves in the US and Canada than China for example. What's more there are plenty of electric engines in development which don't use rare earths (Toyota being the one I remember).
11 January 2012 2:29PM
The problem with electric cars and hybrids is that they promote city driving which many people see as a big problem in towns and city centres.
Given the wasteful subsidies given to try and encourage us to go electric - a £5k handout to buy an EV, exemption from the congestion charge etc, does this also increase competition with other forms of urban transport - buses and trains?
Look at transport as a whole and its obvious that the car's role is best placed taking people longer distances to places which are otherwise difficult to get to by other means. Not trudging around city centres. EV's don't have the range, and Hybrids aren't anymore efficient than other conventional vehicles out there on the highway.
I'll stick with our 15 year old A6. Its size is an incentive to walk to the local shop and on the open road its good for 60mph on a steady run.
11 January 2012 6:48PM
What facts have you got to back this ridiculous statement up with?