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Toyota Motor Corp., taken aback by the volume of advance orders in Japan for the 2010 Prius, had been considering cutting down initial shipments to the U.S, where the redesigned hybrid is scheduled to go on sale within days.






That plan was jettisoned, though, and Toyota now is increasing production at its two Prius plants instead.


"We don't want the North American market to be hurt," said John Hanson, head of environmental communications for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A.  "We're upping production to protect allocations" for the U.S. and Europe while still satisfying home market demand.


Toyota, which launched the third-generation Prius in Japan earlier this month, had expected to sell 100,000 of the fuel-efficient hybrids there by December. Instead, its dealers took advance orders for 80,000 and have reportedly sold another 20,000 in the two weeks since the launch. That's 100,000 down with six months still to go.


The company is now pushing to increase annual Prius production to 500,000 cars -- up from 400,000 -- to keep adequate supplies flowing to all markets.
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Tags: Hybrid, Japan, Toyota, 2010 Prius, Prius Production, Toyota Prius

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Toyota Boosting Prius Production To Align Supply to Strong Demand was originally published by Green Car Advisor. Read the full story by clicking here.