Toyota Prius Buyers Are Defecting to Tesla

With its trucks gaining popularity and cars dropping off, Toyota had a flat sales year in 2018. One of the cars on the decline was the Prius, which fell 19 percent. And it turns out an unlikely culprit is stealing away customers.

Toyota has an overall defection rate to other brands of around 9 percent. According to Jim Lentz, CEO of Toyota Motor North America, about half of that is caused by Prius owners switching to Tesla.

Although the Prius is not a direct competitor to any Tesla vehicle, the American automaker has certainly created more green options on the market. To stave off the competition for the world’s first mass-produced hybrid car, Toyota is sweetening the pot by adding an all-wheel-drive option. Also, Toyota Safety Sense is now standard across the Prius line.

“They like [technology] advancement, they like state-of-the-art,” Dan Abel, chairman of the Toyota National Dealer Council, told Automotive News. “That vehicle has that, and those are things that draw customers to continue to purchase the vehicle. Then, you add in that new e-all-wheel-drive system, and it makes it even better.”

Meanwhile, Toyota is looking to bolster Lexus with even higher-end vehicles. Carl Sewel III, outgoing chairman of the Lexus National Dealer Council, told AN: “We’ve got great product today, but in this type of market, we need to make sure that we’re not only solving one part of the equation, which is sub-$50,000. We’ve got to look for the future, in that more premium luxury utility-vehicle space.” Only time will tell what this means, as Lexus already has a pretty full and luxurious SUV lineup consisting of the UX, NX, RX, GX, and LX.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription required)

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