Prius Topic
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Racer
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,271
Likes: 14
From: Annapolis, Md
Prius Topic
Can someone find out rather this is true or false. I was listening to the radio this morning and one of the radio jocks stated after all the Prius Toyota has sold they still haven't recoup on producing the car.
They've recouped.
It took a while (more than 7 years), but they've recouped from research, development, and production costs.
Not only that, Toyota now has the upper hand in hybrid technology and status. And that onto itself is worth more than the success of the Prius alone...
It took a while (more than 7 years), but they've recouped from research, development, and production costs.
Not only that, Toyota now has the upper hand in hybrid technology and status. And that onto itself is worth more than the success of the Prius alone...
Lexus Fanatic
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 22,608
Likes: 105
From: Waiting for next track day
They have totally made their money back. In the mean time they now have the most hybrid technology in the world and are now selling the patents for the previous generations. they have also created a very good reputation for theeir green products
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Out of Warranty
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 14,925
Likes: 13
From: Houston, Republic of Texas
I worked in product development for an oilfield equipment company for a number of years, and can really appreciate the cost of developing new technologies, especially when the technology you are replacing is well known and relatively cheap. Yeah, you can't recover your costs right away, you have to depend on product performance to justify a premium price - and that takes time.
To recover development costs after you have proven the concept you have to work hard to cut production costs and move quickly to a mature product. "Hand-building" the first dozen units is incredibly expensive, and because they will have few components in common, they are literally impossible to maintain. But you do learn a LOT of lessons along the way. The faster you can get to a production line product, the closer you are to recovering your initial costs.
Toyota shows a textbook example of managing a new product to market. My hat's off to Toyota for sucking it up by offering the Prius at a reasonable price and letting the market come to them. That takes a lot of confidence in your technology.
To recover development costs after you have proven the concept you have to work hard to cut production costs and move quickly to a mature product. "Hand-building" the first dozen units is incredibly expensive, and because they will have few components in common, they are literally impossible to maintain. But you do learn a LOT of lessons along the way. The faster you can get to a production line product, the closer you are to recovering your initial costs.
Toyota shows a textbook example of managing a new product to market. My hat's off to Toyota for sucking it up by offering the Prius at a reasonable price and letting the market come to them. That takes a lot of confidence in your technology.
Last edited by Lil4X; Dec 13, 2008 at 05:13 AM.
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