Toyota Motor Corp. , the first maker of cars powered by gasoline-electric engines, said it has expanded production of the Prius sedans, taking advantage of surging oil prices that boosted sales of fuel-efficient vehicles.
Toyota in April increased the production of the so-called hybrid cars in central Japan's Aichi prefecture to 10,000 units a month from 7,500 a month, spokesman Shigeru Hayakawa said in Tokyo. Asia's biggest carmaker can now make as many as 130,000 Prius a year with overtime, 44 percent more than the earlier production target, Hayakawa said.
The average U. S. retail price for regular-grade gasoline has risen 39 percent this year to $2. 051 a gallon. That has bolstered sales of the Prius, which can go as far as 55 miles on a gallon of gasoline. Toyota's Prius sales more than doubled to in the first four months to 37,396 units due to demand in the U. S. and in Japan.
“The hybrid engine is the key technology for environmentally-friendly cars,'' Toyota President Fujio Cho said. The automaker, which sells its technology to rival Nissan Motor Co. is “open to cooperation with other companies that want to use the technology if it makes business sense,'' he said.
Toyota, which posted its fourth straight record annual profit for the year ended March 31, has sold more than 120,000 Prius cars in the last six years and plans to sell 130,000 units in 2004. Cho has said it plans to double its hybrid lineup to six models by about 2006, putting the gasoline-electric engines on pickup trucks and its Lexus luxury vehicles.
Toyota shares, which have gained 11 percent in 2004, fell as much as 1. 7 percent to 3,950 yen and were traded at 4,000 yen as of 1:36 p. m. in Tokyo.
Surging Demand
The automaker, which redesigned the Prius last year, sold 20,287 units in Japan in the first four months of 2004, from 1,456 a year earlier, while sales in North America rose 86 percent to 14,159 units.
Toyota expects to sell about 50,000 units in the U. S. this year, up from its initial goal of 34,000, according to John Hanson, a spokesman at Toyota Motor Sales. Surging demand has lengthened the waiting time for U. S. customers to at least three months and up to nine months for the Prius, depending on where the model is sold. The Prius, which sells for an average $25,000 in the U. S. , stayed on dealer lots for an average of just six days in April, the shortest period of any model sold in the world's biggest automotive market, according to a survey by J. D. Power & Associates. Toyota plans to sell 300,000 hybrid cars globally by 2006. In Japan, its hybrid lineup includes the Prius, the Crown luxury car, the Estima and Alphard minivans.
The automaker's Lexus luxury unit is to start selling a hybrid version of the RX 330 sport-utility vehicle late this year, followed by the hybrid Highlander sports-utility vehicle in early 2005.