Quote:
Originally Posted by rolla-XRS
No point in making a Yaris Hybrid. Who would want to buy a $25k Yaris? I see the Fit Hybrid dying a horrible death (like it's predecessor Honda Hybrid) on the showroom floor when they try to ask well over $20k for something that already sips gas through a stir stick. You;d have to drive the dang thing 500k miles just to recoup your fuel costs.
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You mean the Honda Insight Hybrid? That is a good point. North American buyers are
very price-sensitive, especially when it comes to smaller cars, which explains why our compact and sub-compact cars (Corolla and Yaris sizes, respectively) do not come with as many "luxury" features as are available elsewhere.
So, there is very unlikely to be a market for a Yaris (or Yaris-sized) hybrid because it would just be too expensive, and the (small) incremental decrease in fuel use would likely be too little to justify the extra cost. Over $20k (at current prices) for a small car that has been made effectively smaller and heavier due to the addition of the hybrid battery pack just would not sell in large enough numbers to be profitable.
What likely makes the Prius such a success (especially the Gen2 model) is that it is family-car sized, yet has the fuel usage of a much smaller car -- have your cake and eat it too.
But perhaps a very mild hybrid Yaris, something with auto-stop / idle-stop technology that would automatically turn off the engine when the car is stopped and the engine idling (at a stoplight, for instance) and automatically turn it back on when the accelerator is pressed again, would work. That is a technology that I know BMW (and other European automakers) is working on. I would like to see auto-stop technology available as standard equipment (and it would teach a lesson to those people who leave their cars idling for 15 or 20 minutes while waiting for someone).
