2010 Toyota Prius Takes Best-Selling Title In Japan

John Voelcker

Senior Editor BIO

John is Senior Editor for High Gear Media. In addition to news coverage and new car reviews, John creates and oversees all editorial for High Gear's... More

LATEST ARTICLE
Do Electric And Natural-Gas Cars Compete Against Each Other?
We've been thinking a lot about natural-gas fueled vehicles, for reasons that will become clear in... Read More

#3LEADERBOARD RANK
2901ARTICLES CONTRIBUTED
1950COMMENTS POSTED

1,387 views Jun 4, 2009

Follow John

Add to circle

2010 Toyota Prius

Enlarge Photo

Related Photo Galleries

Global Toyota Prius Hybrid Sales Level Off As...

See more photos »

The battle between the 2010 Toyota Prius and the 2010 Honda Insight continues to rage in Japan, where the 2010 Prius became the best-selling car for the month of May.

It wrested the crown away from the 2010 Insight, which had become the first hybrid ever to lead the list when it took the top spot for April.

Toyota aggressively cut prices in Japan for the 2010 Prius, which was helped by a government incentives program encouraging the purchase of low-emission vehicles. As a result, the company said it had logged 80,000 orders for the 2010 Toyota Prius by the time the car went on sale May 18.

Excluding tiny kei-class mini-cars with 660cc engines, data from the Japan Automobile Dealers Association ranked the 2010 Prius on top with 10,915 sales in May. The 2010 Honda Fit was second, with sales of 8,859, followed by the 2010 Honda Insight (April's champion) at 8,183.

With US deliveries of the 2010 Toyota Prius starting late last month, analysts will watch the Prius-vs-Insight sales battle closely here in the States as well. Stay tuned for our end-of-month analysis.