Prius Leaves GM's Volt in the Dust

Read this and weep, General Motors: Toyota introduced its Prius V wagon in the closing weeks of 2011.  The cars didn't start to arrive at dealerships until late October.  Even so, Toyota sold 8,399 of the stretched Priuses.

Meanwhile, GM spent millions of dollars and the entire year trying to sell its much-ballyhooed Chevrolet Volt.  And how many Volts did it sell in 12 months? Yep, 7,671.

In other words, and just to be clear about it, Toyota sold more Prius V's in two months than GM sold Volts in an entire year.

Is this a black eye for GM?  Or does it just reflect the fact that Toyota has been selling mass-market electric hybrids in the U.S., since August 2000, to be exact. So, among other things, Toyota has a lot of brand recognition when it comes to hybrids.

It has something else too: a low price.  The Prius V, a small wagon that can handle five people and their gear, starts at $26,400.  The Volt starts at $39,145.  Of course, buy a Volt and you get a $7,500 credit on your income tax, which takes a bite out of taxpayers and still doesn't get you into Prius country.

Toyota, which some would say learned about marketing and branding from GM, has been growing the Prius from a single model into a complete line of fuel-efficient cars and wagons. Besides the standard Prius and the V, a subcompact and a plug-in are arriving this year.

Toyota is hoping it can sell 220,000 Prius models in 2012.  That would put it about 210,000 ahead of GM.