The new Aqua is off to an excellent start in Japan as Toyota revealed that it had already received pre-orders for 60,000 cars ahead of the sub-compact hybrid hatchback’s launch on Monday, December 26. That’s five times the company’s monthly sales target of 12,000 cars in Japan.
“It will take about four months to receive the car once an order is placed,” Toyota managing officer Koei Saga told reporters during a media briefing earlier this week.
The Aqua, which will be marketed around the world as the new Prius C, made its world premiere at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show in the beginning of December.
Roughly the same size as the latest Yaris hatchback, the Aqua pairs a 1.5-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine with 74PS at 4,800 rpm and 111Nm (81.9 lb-ft) to an electric motor producing up to 45kW (61PS) and 169Nm (125 lb-ft), for combined output of 100PS (73kW or 98HP).
The CVT-equipped hybrid model can accelerate from standstill to 100 km/h (62mph) in 10.7 seconds while completing the 40 km/h to 70 km/h sprint in 3.6 seconds.
Toyota says that in Japan, the Aqua returns a fuel efficiency of 35.4 km/L (equal to 83.3 mpg US or 2.8lt/100km) under the JC08 test cycle and 40 km/L (94 mpg US or 2.5lt/100 km) under the 10-15 driving cycle.
Pricing for the new Aqua in Japan starts from 1.69 million yen (US$21,770 at today’s exchange rates) for the base “L” model and rises to 1.85 million yen (US$23,830) for the range-topping “G” trim level.
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