Even though Toyota has just announced the arrival of an all new Prius hybrid, the company has recently revealed plans to keep selling the older Prius along with the new model. Japan’s Nikkei business paper claims Toyota plans to keep the outgoing Prius on sale as a way to counter the threat of Honda’s new value-priced Insight hybrid.
According to the paper, Toyota plans on doing this by stripping the interior of the Prius and retrofitting a much simpler (read: less expensive) dashboard setup. The mutliple screens will be replaced in favor of more conventional guages. Honda’s Insight has been the cause of many sleepless nights for Toyota’s management. The little Honda promises to come in at less than two million yen (roughly $22,200).
Toyota’s current Prius sells at anywhere from $25,900 to $37,217, so the Insight would be stiff competition. The company has still not made an official statement on the matter. Toyota’s press office in Tokyo said, "We don’t comment on future models."
Source: Inside Line
