The Toyota Prius has been king of they hybrid hill for a while now, but with the recent introduction of the Honda Insight (check out our head-to-head comparison here), that may change. The Insight has a base level price tag of under $20,000, and it could very well lure away many hybrid buyers who can’t afford the Prius, which costs about 15% more. Not to be outdone, Toyota says they will be expanding their line of hybrid cars.
The spcific segment that they will be expanding into is the small and compact car markets. Toyota already offers an array of hybrid options for popular models like the Camry, but none of their hybrid models are priced as low as Honda’s Insight. One of the ways that Toyota will be rolling out a cheaper hybrid is to take their compact Yaris model and give it an electric motor to help the gasoline engine.
Price-wise, this makes sense for Toyota. The most expensive options with a Yaris only brings the price tag up to around $16,000, so adding a hybrid drivetrain won’t push the price over the $20k mark. While Toyota hasn’t given a definite date for the Yaris Hybrid’s introduction, inside sources hint at the 2011 model year.
http://www.greencarplanet.com/2009/04/26/toyota-to-expand-its-hybrid-offerings/
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