Toyota Reconsiders The Prius Strategy

Prius Family I believe will continue to shrink as Toyota and other companies like GM find ways to use the Hybrid plug in model on more common desired auto's. For GM, I hope the Equinox / Terrain ends up with a plug in Hybrid power train. My gut tells me the RAV4 Hybrid will do much better than the Prius V. After all everyone wants a CUV with better MPG but no loss in functionality.

People bought the Pruis to save on gas (even if the financials of that idea were sketchy), but taking the fuel savings aspect away, the Pruis was rather lousy as a car.  It handles poorly, has a lot of road and engine noise, every one I've driven has creaks and rattles, and they're ugly.  Now that gas is as low as $1.25 a gallon in some parts of the country, the fuel saving aspect is far less compelling and cannot overcome the negatives of the car.

Other hybrids I've driven are actually decent at their primary task of being a car. You don't take an experience penalty to drive a Fusion Hybrid or Chevy Volt. You just get the normal, capable, Fusion and save fuel. In a Fusion hybrid, there is no downside outside of the price of admission to the hybrid theme park. 

Well, in the new MT test (which I think was poorly done)...

The new Prius, despite its looks, they said really corrects many of the daily driving issues of previous generation cars. The car feels more substantial, not as much as the Volt, but the Volt is aided in that feel because of the heavy battery pack.

And it beat its EPA estimates in their Real MPG test, that most hybrids fail to do really.

I think, the car is quintessentially what Toyota is about. Take away the ugly styling, here you have a clearly Japanese-focused car. In the JDM market, it is the sales king, the car gets undoubtedly stellar mileage.

And I think Volt still has the issue of being a more complicated car, that adds cost, and makes it less competitive on an entry starting point. 

If there was any hybrid that was really just focused on mileage, it's Prius. But this generation, they've finally made it a daily car. And like Mini - it has its legacy quirks, part of the way the car is - is for it to be bizarre.

Given how people actually drive cars, I think if someone told me they wanted efficiency first without the entry point of the Volt - handily get the Prius over the Fusion/Malibu/Camry/Sonata/Optima hybrids. Easily.