Re: Prius won't be built in U.S.
Most US sold Camry's are made in the US. If the Camry were solely imported from Japan, it would outstrip Toyota's ability to build them there on the same line as Corola and Prius. The reason additional Camry production was placed in the US was because this is a Camry market, even more so than Japan. Camry is a huge car in Japan, here it is a mid-sized. Camry is not as popular in the Japanese market as compared to here, so you put production where it is most popular. The Corolla is actually much more popular in Japan than Camry because its size is much more compatible with typical urban Japanese driving conditions and more importantly, parking conditions.
The point is that Prius is a bit like Corola in terms of manueverability and as such lends itself well to Japan's streets. Making it there makes more economic sense to Toyota also because of the geographic closeness to the sub-contractors of various parts, such as the PSD and batteries. If Prius were made in the U.S. it would either require the importing of PSDs and batteries from Japan or Toyota would have to make additional domestic investments in PSD and battery manufacturing facilities to actually have the car made here.
It has been said:
Hybrid drivers come in 3 flavors, greenie, techie and cheapie. Pick any 2.
2005 Prius, Melinium Silver over gray, package 5 (AI)
|
Maybe Toyota sees the Prius II topping out at 100 - 150K/year here in the states? 
