Toyota To Increase Production By 70%
Toyota has plans to start production of the next-generation Prius and it has plans to produce it with even more factory space then usual. It will be built with better fuel efficiency and they have plans to produce 480,000 units per year.
The Japan-based Tsutsumi factory, which currently builds five different vehicles, will stop making the JDM Wish minivan to allow for more Priuses. Even more Prius capacity will be available beginning in 2010, when the Japanese automaker’s new Mississippi plant comes online and begins to produce more of the hybrid.
With the meteoric rise in gas prices, the Prius has gone from a yuppie green statement for politicians and suburbanites to a means for the masses to travel around town without breaking the bank. $4 per gallon gas and a continued lack of competition means Toyota could probably double production again and still sell every Prius it makes.