Prius Bests Honda in Environmental War
Toyota Motor Corp.’s new Prius hybrid sedan has topped rival Honda Motor Co.’s Insight two-seater in the latest round of the automotive “green” wars.
And a Toyota spokesman said Wednesday that advance orders for the five-seat Prius have exceeded expectations and will prompt the company’s U.S. sales arm to seek a production increase.
Where Toyota Motor Sales USA had expected to sell an average of 1,000 of the gasoline-electric cars a month, dealers have processed more than 1,300 sales orders in the week that advance sales were opened to a group of about 40,000 people who have asked for information about the car in the last year, said Steve Sturm, vice president of sales for the Torrance-based importer.
Official launch of the $19,995 Prius is scheduled for Friday, at dealerships and on Toyota’s Internet site, https://www.toyota.com.
Sturm said sales will be helped by the release Wednesday of a new rating that places the Prius at the top of the list of environmentally friendly gasoline-using vehicles.
With the $18,800 Insight, which arrived in December, Honda beat Toyota to market in the U.S. with a fuel-saving hybrid gasoline-electric propulsion system. The Prius averages about 50 miles per gallon, the Insight about 60.
But the Toyota has qualified for status as a super-ultra-low-emissions vehicle in California, besting the Honda’s low-emissions vehicle status.
That was enough to persuade the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, nonprofit publisher of the annual Green Book guide to environmentally friendly vehicles, to name the Prius the “greenest” gasoline-using vehicle on sale in the U.S. in its midyear update, published on the Internet at https://www.greenercars.com.
General Motors Corp.’s all-electric EV1 coupe and Honda’s natural-gas-powered Civic GX remain the two top vehicles in environmental friendliness, according to the council’s rankings.
“We’re marketing Prius on environmental and technological grounds, and the endorsement of third-party groups like ACEEE certainly will help sales,” Sturm said.
The first Prius deliveries to retail customers are expected at the end of this month or in the first few days of August.
