Toyota Prius C

Urban Champ: New Toyota Prius C offers outstanding value

The subcompact cost-effective king for city drivers

It’s official. C hybrid should dominate city cost effectiveness

So, you need a new car, and you live in a city like Los Angeles, but you want to be as fiscally smart as possible. It’s all about the most bang for your buck. Of course, aside from automatic windows, locks and an automatic transmission, you insist on BlueTooth and USB connectivity as well – I mean, let’s be real.

Then the Toyota Prius C is the car for you. This new small and cheap hybrid car simply blows away the competition. Read more…

Forget Camry sales: Could the Prius be Toyota’s next Corolla?

The world's best selling car

Forget just US sales, let’s think worldwide

Before the end of this decade, Toyota believes the Prius family will outsell the Camry. Whatever. Why not shoot for the moon?

Within this decade, could a car like the Prius C help the family outsell the Corolla, and I mean in terms of total worldwide sales? Read more…

The “un-Prius-like” Toyota Prius C is sporty and fun to drive

The fun to drive "non-Prius-like" Toyota Prius

At least according to some early Prius C reviews

After more than 10 years on the market, hybrid cars have sadly achieved very little in terms of real world impact. At less than 3 percent marketshare of total US auto sales, hybrids are still just scratching the surface of change. Ultimately, prices have to come down.

That makes the sub-$19,000 smaller Toyota Prius C interesting, but now comes word that the Prius C isn’t even very Prius-like, except in terms of fuel economy. Instead, the new Prius C is “taut, sporty and, yes, even fun.”

Did someone just say Prius and fun? Read more…

100,000 Toyota Prius C hybrid car orders already in Japan

Cheaper hybrid price + gov incentives = Japanese Prius success

Tax incentives and cheaper hybrid costs working in the land of the rising sun

As the American press continues to sell the decline of hybrid sales in 2011, apparently unable to deduce that a massive earthquake and tsunami almost wiped out hybrid supplies coming out of Japan — the bulk of all hybrids made in the world — hybrid sales are exploding in places like Japan and Malaysia.

And already the new Toyota Prius C, or Aqua in Japan, is having a major imprint on the hybrid sale’s story. Read more…

Hybrid conundrum: Rare earth free but also cheaper?

A rare earth free electric motor

Rare earth free Toyota hybrids could be here in 2 years

I’ve been following the rare earth story now for a few years, since the resources are so valuable for the production of hybrid and plug-in cars. And it has always been clear that rare earth free hybrid cars are possible, but the real question has been the costs of rare earth free motors.

Thus, when reports hit the wire today that Toyota has developed a new technology to produce rare earth free hybrids, my interest was again piqued, but my focus was immediately magnified on costs. Read more…

2012 Hybrid cars: Has hybrid interest really declined?

The 2012 hybrid sales story is all about Toyota

Or was it all just about the Japanese supply disruption?

If you followed the hybrid headlines in 2011, you might believe the end must be near for hybrid cars, despite recent headlines — even from a major oil company — regarding the alleged massive upside potential of hybrids heading into the future.

Still, was hybrid interest really down in 2011? Or was the 2011 hybrid story one of shoddy journalism? More important, what story will 2012 hybrid cars sales tell? Read more…

$19,000 Toyota Prius C: Why buy a Corolla or other compact?

A real hybrid challenge to the compact segment

An interesting litmus test for Toyota hybrid cars

Do you really need battery technologies to achieve automotive success through the next decade? According to companies like Hyundai, the answer is no, although even Hyundai will admit that hybrids are still required even if just to maintain image and perception. And most automakers seem to agree, at least judging by the plethora of quality, non-hybrid compact offerings hitting the streets these days.

But the 53 mpg — city NOT highway — Prius C might make automakers rethink the value proposition of compact hybrids. Read more…

Small car revolution? Toyota Prius C versus the Toyota Corolla

The hybrid revolution begins?

A little smaller, a little more fuel efficient, but how much cheaper?

OK. We all know that most Americans are interested in buying hybrid cars. However, until prices decline and hybrid premium payback is recovered in just a couple of years or less, most Americans just aren’t going to pull the sale’s trigger.

But could the Toyota Prius C be the first car to start shooting down the hybrid premium compared to conventional comparisons? Read more…

Conditioning: Why a big jump in hybrid sales is coming

Another gas spike or two will change everything about hybrid sales.

Hybrids still aren’t ready to mainstream, but they’re closer than you think

Recently AutoNation’s Mike Jackson served up some stern remarks regarding hybrid and plug-in market penetration, pointing out that while 70 percent of consumers claim to be interested in hybrids and plug-ins — according to polls and surveys — less than 3 percent actually buy.

And with the latest Tesla downgrade by one-time EV bull Morgan Stanley, it’s easy to believe that the hybrid revolution is over. Yet, that sentiment couldn’t be further from the truth. Read more…

Toyota’s hybrid plans can’t make sense

The Prius is driving Toyota's future, despite the skeptics

Trying to take hybrids — and not just the Prius — into the mainstream

When it comes to hybrid sale’s forecasts, Toyota has thus far defied the doubters — which has pretty much been the rest of the entire auto industry. But, now that fuel economy is becoming more important, automakers are taking notice.

However, as other automakers move to supposedly cheaper new transmissions, turbo-charging, cylinder deactivation, etc, rather than hybrids, Toyota continues to push its hybrid sale’s projections into unrealistic new ground. Read more…