In response to a combination of heavy demand for the recently redesigned Prius in its home market of Japan and reduced demand in the gas price sensitive North American market, Toyota says it is considering shuffling its production allocation. Though the first batch of new Priuses will still make the overseas trip from Toyota’s two Japanese plants, some to-be-built Priuses might stay in Japan.
Toyota already has 80,000 orders for the new Prius in Japan, far exceeding the automaker’s expectations for the market. Toyota had expected to sell 100,000 Priuses in all of 2009.
Toyota ’s Yoshimasa Ishii, managing officer for overseas marketing, told Automotive News that the company will “review its sales plan and reallocate the production plan.”
The automaker could increase production of the Prius, which comes to life in two Japanese plants and one Chinese plant (for that market only), but it admits that capacity is relatively limited since it has delayed plans to produce the Prius in the United States Toyota had expected to sell 500,000 annually.
