Toyota Prius for India soon – but why?

Yes, Toyota has confirmed that the most well known hybrid car in the world – the Toyota Prius – will come to India.

The Honda Civic Hybrid was launched in India just a month back. We hear it has sold some 50-plus units so far. Not bad for a hybrid car.

But I wonder – okay its a bit of publicity for the company concerned, free newspaper inches and TV time. But is there anything more to it?

I think that is all. Take a look at the price of the Honda Civic (petrol) in India and you get something like Rs 12 lakhs. The hybrid Civic sells for above Rs 20 lakhs. That is a Rs 8 lakh price differential. How many kilometers of running does it take to justify that? Assuming that a liter of petrol costs Rs 50 in India… you do the math.

But its an imported car, and the government is making a great pile of cash on the hybrid Civic for sure. Perhaps they should reduce taxes a bit on the Civic hybrid, encourage more sales, and get a lot more as tax due to increased sales!

The Toyota Prius too will be a similar story. Toyota has already admitted that while it is a great car, it will be expensive upfront. Toyota launched the Prius in China in 2006 – and have seen only sales of 2400-plus units in 2 years and more. The Prius too is priced exhorbitantly high in China, we can expect the same in India too.

What we in India really need is a highly efficient hybrid, electric or even a diesel small car. Despite what we hear about Tata and their work on the air car and the proposed electric car, as of now, we remain sceptical.