Prius Sales Down, Production Problems To Blame

Toyota Motor Sales reported earlier this week that its overall vehicle sales were down nearly 8 percent in the month of May, compared to May 2007 sales figures. The company reported strong sales of its Corolla and Camry/Camry hybrid models. Nearly 6,000 Camry hybrids were sold during the month of May.

Overall, Toyota sold 127,353 hybrid units across it's Toyota and Lexus lines. Sales of Lexus hybrids were up 18 percent from the same period last year. The company attributes part of the sales increase to an additional selling day in May 2008. Notably, Prius sales were down nearly 40 percent from the same period last year, due to production problems centered on the availability of batteries for the vehicle. Overall, Prius sales in the first five months of 2008 nearly matched all of the Prius sales from 2007. Toyota expects to continue selling 100 percent of its Prius production run each month. The company did not indicate when it expects to have its battery supply issue solved.

Toyota recently announced that it will bring its second and third battery production facilities online in Japan to respond to the demand for hybrid batteries. Currently, the Prius operates on nickel-metal-hydride battery packs but Toyota has said that it plans to migrate the Prius and its other hybrid vehicles to lithium-ion batteries at some point in the future.

Toyota also recently entered talks with GM to produce the Prius at a GM facility in California. Neither company has commented on the report, other than to say that talks are taking place.

Source: Toyota Motor Sales, USA