The good news for Toyota is that its recently launched Prius C hybrid is proving to be a hit. In Japan, where it went on sale last December as the Aqua, the sub-compact hybrid received 60,000 orders even before it was even launched and that number has now increased to 120,000 units.
The Prius C / Aqua is manufactured exclusively in Japan at Toyota’s Iwate plant. While in 2007, the plant exported around 60 percent of its output, that number has now been halved to 30 percent.
Therefore, the bad news is that despite Toyota’s boasting about the fact that it only took three days for the Prius C to sell more units than the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet combined in one month, the Japanese automaker may not be able to satisfy demand for its hybrid model in the U.S. market.
According to Automotive News, the Itawe plant’s president Tetsuo Hattori is already working to rectify the situation.
Hattori said that the factory managers are applying certain measures that will increase capacity. Moreover, production of the Ractis, which like the Scion xD and Belta (a JDM sedan version of the Yaris) is assembled there, will be transferred to the Higashifuji plant in May.
“The extra capacity we gain from the transfer will be put towards the Prius C or Aqua”, said Hattori. He declined, however, to talk about numbers: currently, 360,000 Prius C roll out of the plant’s production line, just 20 percent of which are destined for overseas markets.
“We produce other models, too, and we are looking at ways of satisfying the demand for all our customers”, said Hattori. He added that, so far, Toyota has not decided to manufacture its small hybrid at another plant, although that may change since the company is reviewing its domestic production strategy.
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