Launched worldwide in 2001, the Prius achieved over 1 million cumulative global sales just last month. Now Toyota wants to sell 1 million hybrid models per year within the next two years. Read More:
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I know products are priced vastly different in different markets, I wonder what Toyota sells their cars for in the various markets around the world. Seems to me they will not sell many $28,000 Prius' to people earning less than $1,000 a year. I have seen Nissans in Mexico that cost thousands less than they do in the US. Canadian pricing is different as well
BTW, when I visited Thailand, there were probably hundreds of thousands of late model Corollas in Bangkok, many of them taxi's. Considering the traffic jams in Bangkok, a Prius would probably be cost effective for city driving, even if cost more to begin with.
I don't think they have started making them in Thailand yet. Most of these countries have import duties, so if they are made in Thailand they will be cheaper for residents of Thailand.
Based on the Corollas I saw in Thailand and elsewhere in SE Asia, a lot of them are made without "luxury" items such as power windows and door locks, automatic transmissions, etc. It is rare to find a car with an automatic transmission in Thailand. All of these things lower the cost and the price.
The Camry starts at 1,177,000 Thai Baht, which according to Yahoo finance's currency calculator, is U.S. $35,515.99301 as of June 12. No wonder they want to make the Camry there!
The $35.5K price is a bit misleading. The US dollar has taken a dive recently versus the Thai baht. As recently as 2005 the US dollar was at 42 Thai baht, but now it is only about 32 Thai baht. Earlier this year the dollar was below 30 baht.
I believe that the Camry is already made in Thailand, but you will not see many on their roads since the Corolla is king in Thailand. Part of this that is because some of the streets are very narrow, and mainly because traffic is horrendous in Bangkok (with an estimated population of nearly 15 million). I would not be surprised if most of the gas in Bangkok is consumed during idling or traveling less than 5 mph.
I know about the average annual income in Thailand, but averages can be deceiving. Also, there are a lot of taxi's for tourists and business people. From what I could tell,there are hundreds of thousands of Corollas in Bangkok.
The Camry is really a little too big for Bangkok, so these are definitely for export.
I haven't cheked the average annual income in Thailand, but I don't disagree that they may want to export them from Thailand. My guess is that they wold be exported to another Aisian market like Hong Kong or Beijing.
It is not just the price. They prefer Corollas because of the horrible traffic and narrow streets. I did see a few Camrys, but there are not many cars that big in Bangkok (except for the Mercedes' and BMW's). More than 80% of the cars on the street in Thailand are taxis, and 80% of them are Corollas, with a few Nissans and others mixed in.
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