Japanese automaker, Toyota , is hoping for 2012 sales of 60k units of its Prius Prime, according to Koji Toyoshima , chief engineer of the next-gen hybrid vehicle. Half of these sales are expected to come from Japan , and the other half from America . Interestingly, while the car will go on sale in some Japanese markets, only “marginal” sales are expected in that region. The Prime has a lot to prove and a somewhat battered reputation to fix, given that Toyota itself deemed the previous generation Prius “a failure” after sales of only 75k units since its launch in 2012 . To add to the pressure, Honda and Hyundai are both launching direct Prius competitors in 2012 , in the form of the Clarity and the Ioniq respectively.
Japanese automaker, Toyota, is hoping for annual sales of 60k units of its Prius Prime, according to Koji Toyoshima, chief engineer of the next-gen hybrid vehicle. Half of these sales are expected to come from America, and the other half from Japan. Interestingly, while the car will go on sale in some European markets, only “marginal” sales are expected in that region. The Prime has a lot to prove and a somewhat battered reputation to fix, given that Toyota itself deemed the previous generation Prius “a failure” after sales of only 75k units since its launch in 2012. To add to the pressure, Honda and Hyundai are both launching direct Prius competitors in the coming years, in the form of the Clarity and the Ioniq respectively.