Toyota Prius Sales Predicted to Fall Due to Expiration of Subsidies (Video)

Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius’s wave of strong growth may slow due to the expiration of Japanese government subsidies.
Toyota Prius Sales Predicted to Fall Due to Expiration of Subsidies (Video)
Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius's wave of strong growth may slow due to the expiration of Japanese government subsidies. (Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images)
9/2/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/prius98945598.jpg" alt="Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius's wave of strong growth may slow due to the expiration of Japanese government subsidies. (Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images)" title="Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius's wave of strong growth may slow due to the expiration of Japanese government subsidies. (Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1815150"/></a>
Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius's wave of strong growth may slow due to the expiration of Japanese government subsidies. (Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images)
In Germany, total subsidies were up to $6.4 billion for buyers of new vehicles who traded in their old cars, which helped increase sales by 23 percent in 2009, according to the VDA auto industry association—when the support subsided, new car registrations in the country plummeted 29 percent for the first seven months of 2010, according to the association.

The U.S. pattern was similar to Germany’s, where the government provided $2.88 billion in rebates in 2009 encouraging consumers to trade their existing vehicles for more fuel-efficient models—the “cash for clunkers” program—resulting in around 700,000 sales. Toyota’s share of this growth was more than 19 percent.

Toyota’s U.S. sales dropped 3.2 percent to 169,224 vehicles, and Prius sales also fell 26 percent to 14,102 in August compared with 2009 figures.