Toyota Canada Inc. is trimming the price of its Prius hybrid car by about $2,000 and adding standard features worth about $2,500 even as it struggles to keep up with demand for the car and other auto makers race to beef up their hybrid offerings.
The 2008 Prius carries a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $29,500, compared with $31,280 for the 2007 model.
That price cut, which amounts to about $4,500 once the new equipment is factored in, should make the car even more popular, said dealers, who added that both Prius and the hybrid version of the Camry mid-sized sedan are in short supply. Sales of the hybrid version of the Camry have outpaced those of the Prius so far this year in Canada.
There are more hybrid models to come, said Toyota Canada president Yoichi Tomihara. All Toyota core models, from the compact Corolla through to the Tundra full-sized pickup truck, will eventually have hybrid versions, Mr. Tomihara said.
"The strongest driver is the concern about environmental issues," he said in an interview last week.
Parent Toyota Motor Corp. in Japan is increasing capacity of the plants that manufacture hybrid vehicles, he said. Toyota wants to sell one million hybrids globally - or about 10 per cent of its worldwide sales - by early next decade.
Demand for Prius alone in North America is reaching the point where Toyota is preparing a plan to manufacture the car here, industry sources said, with the auto maker's joint-venture plant with General Motors Corp. in California earmarked as the site where Prius production will begin early in the next decade.
Toyota's decision to offer a stand-alone hybrid - versus a hybrid version of an existing vehicle - is seen by analysts as a marketing coup that stoked the original demand for the vehicle earlier this decade.
Honda Motor Co. Ltd., for example, was never able to generate similar success with a hybrid version of its mid-sized Accord and no longer offers the vehicle.
But it still offers a hybrid version of the Civic compact that is selling well in Canada, said Honda Canada Inc. senior vice-president Jim Miller.
GM is increasing its passenger car hybrid offerings with a hybrid version of its Chevrolet Malibu mid-sized car, which has been redesigned for the 2008 model year. It joins the Saturn Aura, another mid-sized car that GM began offering with a hybrid option in 2007. The 2008 Saturn Aura will be priced at $27,575.
Hybrid demand has been fuelled in Canada by the federal government's ecoAuto rebate program, which provides a $2,000 rebate to buyers of cars with that technology and others that will reduce gasoline consumption.
A hybrid version of the Saturn Vue sport utility vehicle has been one of the hot sellers for General Motors of Canada Ltd., said spokesman Stew Low.
"We didn't have any problem selling out of them," he said.
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