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2016 Toyota Prius Delayed, Is Toyota Worried It Can’t Keep Up With Hybrid Competition?

The replacement for the current generation Prius, shown here, has been delayed by half a year.

Right now every carmaker in the world is breathing down Toyota’s neck trying to become the big name in fuel economy, and it looks like Toyota is taking the competition seriously. So seriously that the 2016 Prius has been delayed significantly to make improvements on the new chassis and hybrid system. Toyota has delayed production of the 2016 Prius by about 6 months, pushing the expected date the iconic hybrid will go into production from Spring 2015 to December 2015.

The 2016 Prius will be the first car to use Toyota’s modularized vehicle architecture, which will share more components throughout the Toyota lineup, hopefully bringing costs down and quality up.

With gas mileage ratings across the industry skyrocketing in recent years, the Prius is no longer the one name in fuel economy, so the advanced hybrid system and modular chassis are more important to Toyota than the Prius’ success. The Prius’ delays are more of a sign that Toyota wants these new systems perfect before launch (hopefully without recalls now that GM has become the first name you think of when you hear the word) and less of a sign that Toyota is unsure of the new Prius itself.

 

 

 

 

Source: Automotive News Europe, which included this gem "he told Automotive News Europe sister publication Automotive News," in the story. Thanks, nobody could have guessed that you’re affiliated from the fact that you have the same name except yours has a location at the end and your site is a subdomain of theirs.