Cutting back on green subsidies topples the Prius

Cutting back on green subsidies topples the Prius

Well, it had to end at some point. Figures of Japanese car sales released late last week saw the Toyota Prius being toppled from the monthly No 1 spot as Japan’s best-selling car, a position it had held for 20 straight months.

Its replacement? Honda’s Fit compact hatch, which climbed back on to the top spot for the first time in close to two years. The Fit – or Jazz as we know it – moved 14,873 units in January, with nearly half of them the hybrid version of the car, ahead of the 13,711 managed by the Prius.

Cutting back on green subsidies topples the Prius

The ending of government-backed subsidies for green cars in September last year undoubtedly played a key role in pushing the Prius off the top spot. Its domestic pricing starts at US$25,000. Comparatively, the Fit was affected less by this incentive removal – it’s the cheapest hybrid in Japan at US$19,000.

Still, the Prius remains the world’s top-selling hybrid, and domestically, Toyota moved 315,669 of it in 2010, a jump of 51% from the year before.

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Anthony Lim

Anthony Lim believes that nothing is better than a good smoke and a car with character, with good handling aspects being top of the prize heap. Having spent more than a decade and a half with an English tabloid daily never being able to grasp the meaning of brevity or being succinct, he wags his tail furiously at the idea of waffling - in greater detail - about cars and all their intrinsic peculiarities here.

 

Comments

  • mandur on Feb 09, 2011 at 1:04 pm

    USD 19,000 = 57,714.37

    green with style… wonder when i can get one….
    but here in malaysia i can only afford saga

    well done g’vment

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    • pelanggar lari on Feb 09, 2011 at 3:17 pm

      gov has exempt tax for under 2000cc hybrid. probably the price is affordable if it enter malaysia. sadly the sales of Jazz in malaysia is low so Honda Malaysia maybe not bring in this car

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    • vincent on Feb 09, 2011 at 6:03 pm

      So now only you know our ‘tax free’ hybrid car is not really that tax free? Or perhaps, super fat profits for T&H?

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  • Hope Honda Malaysia would bring in this Jazz Hybrid car at the cost of less than 80k

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