Toyota Prius is one of the favourite cars for Hollywood stars and has never seen its popularity slow down amongst world’s most popular cinema industry even after the tough times in the US market.
Toyota launched its most popular hybrid vehicle in India at the Delhi Auto Expo 2010. Now the company has introduced the model in the Indian commercial market. Toyota has already received 80 confirmed bookings for the car in India of which 24 have been delivered last week. Toyota is quite overwhelmed with the response as it had initially planned to sell only 200 units of the car in its first year. Now looking at the present sales figures, it seems to be surely reaching its target for the current calendar year sooner than expected.
Honda had earlier launched its hybrid model in India but had faced poor response from the market. Toyota had been a little sceptical in launching the car looking at such a bad precedent. However, Indian car buyer preferences have seemed to sea-change since 2008 and now Toyota Prius is well taken. Toyota’s horror experience in the international market nor the hybrid technology experience from Honda has deterred the Indian customers to go in for the kill for this new car from Toyota.
"We are happy with the demand for the car and believe that once the cars hit the road demand will go up further," said Sandeep Singh, deputy managing director (sales), Toyota Kirloskar Motor. "Bookings are robust and should go beyond the 200 cars that we have asked for from TMC, though we are not likely to get any more cars this year. Next year we will deifinitely order more cars... maybe 400 or 500."
