All Entries Tagged With: "prius truck concept"
3 Reasons Toyota Should Unveil A Prius Pickup
On January 10th, 2011, Toyota is going to unveil three new Prius models:
- The plug-in Prius hybrid that’s been rumored for years
- The Prius wagon that Toyota has hinted at for months (and that made an appearance at Toyota’s most recent Las Vegas dealer meeting)
- An unknown concept
I think the unknown concept that is unveiled will probably be a Prius coupe that we were all expecting to see last year. However, it could be a Prius pickup truck. We talked about the possibility of a Prius pickup truck in late September, 2010, and at that time we referenced news that discussed a car-based pickup shared between Prius and Scion: Scion would get the low-cost version that attracted younger consumers with lots of customization options, while Prius would get the higher-cost version with a hybrid drivetrain and great gas mileage.
While we’ll always question the logic of a car-based pickup truck, there’s no denying that the marketplace anticipates a need. GM is talking about bringing back the El Camino and the next Ram Dakota will be based on a car. If Toyota decided to invest in a new Prius model in early 2008, there’s a pretty good chance they looked at building a pickup. The popular opinion at the time was that gas prices had really hurt truck sales and that there was a strong need for a fuel-efficient truck. Add in all the news we’ve seen and it sort of makes sense…
Here’s why Toyota should unveil a new Prius-powered pickup next month: