The Toyota Prius C isn’t available in the US yet – Toyota has announced they will start selling the 2012 Prius C in March this year. In Japan, sales of the Toyota Prius C have already started. The Prius C is called the Aqua in Japan, and within 5 days of the Aqua’s debut, Toyota received 10 times it’s monthly sales target in pre-orders for the compact version of the Toyota Prius Hybrid. Demand this high will likely lead to supply shortages and long wait times for the vehicle.
Toyota received approximately 120,000 orders for the Aqua between December 26 and December 31. Toyota had targeted sales of around 12,000 cars per month. In the US, Toyota has already received 60,000 orders even though the Prius C will only be available in March – estimated wait times may be as high as 4 months to get the car in the US, as Toyota’s current production capacity is limited to 30,000 Prius C units a month.
The Prius C is estimated to get 50mpg and will be priced just under $19,000.
Toyota has already started selling the Toyota Prius V in the US, and it’s also very popular. This leads us to wonder how the Prius Plug-in Hybrid will do when it’s released later this year. There aren’t any other plug-in hybrids on the road currently except the Chevy Volt which has had trouble getting a decent number of sales. Toyota seems to be building off of the reputation of the Prius being the best selling hybrid for the past ten years. A Prius Plug-in hybrid might just be what the plug-in hybrid market needs to make enough sales to start becoming mainstream.
