The decline of the Prius has been WAY exaggerated
Toyota’s in an interesting spot this year. The new Prius is being overshadowed, what with the flurry blizzard of electric car announcements from naerly every carmaker, including Chinese battery upstart BYD.
One of the newer members of Warren Buffett’s investment stable, BYD deserves kudos for nipping the First World automakers with their product — which is already on sale in China!
A few commentators (e.g. here or here) have commented that Prius sales have slowed substantially (declines of almost 50% year-on-year), attributing this to cheaper gas prices.
This illustrates the importance of context. While cheaper gas prices may have modestly impacted Prius sales… the fact that auto sales across the industry were down about 40%, shows that the Prius is hardly a falling titan. And since the new Prius was about to be released, it’s natural to expect that potential buyers would wait for the latest-and-greatest model. Nice summary here.