Toyota to take on Insight by cutting Prius base price to $21,000

Toyota to take on Insight by cutting Prius base price to $21,000

Filed under: Car Buying, Hybrids/Alternative, Green, Toyota



With the introduction of the Honda Insight, Toyota is facing the most serious challenge yet to its hybrid dominance since the Prius debuted. While the Insight's hybrid technology is not as sophisticated as Toyota's, it delivers excellent fuel economy, and more importantly, the Insight has a significant price advantage over the Prius. Given the threat and the current difficulties facing the auto market, Toyota has apparently decided to take up the fight by cutting the base price of the Prius by $1,000 to $21,000, only $1,200 more than the Honda.

Toyota's strategy in Japan was to keep the previous generation Prius in production to compete with the Insight on price. However, when we asked a Toyota spokesman in New York if the company evaluated the same option for the US, we were told Toyota decided against it due to new OBD-II regulations that would have required significant updates to the old Prius, negated any cost advantage. Thanks to Jarret for the tip!

[Source: Bloomberg]Toyota to take on Insight by cutting Prius base price to $21,000 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 21 Apr 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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The new insight looks like the prius... I prefer the old styled small insight...