Bloomberg: The fall of the Toyota Prius

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Prius Sales Are Falling, But Hybrids Are More Popular Than Ever

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The Toyota Prius, once revered as the greenest car on the road, has fallen on hard times. Sales are on a six-year losing streak, and now the previously preeminent eco-mobile has fallen behind the Ford Fusion hybrid -- a model its parent company plans to pull the plug on in a couple years.

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Monthly sales released Monday provided further evidence of Prius’s slide. Sales dropped 24% in the month, bringing the model’s year-to-date decline to 39%. The automaker attributed the steep drop-off to a manufacturing changeover for an updated version that began in January.

The Prius ceding leadership of the U.S. hybrid market would have been unimaginable in the early part of the century, when Hollywood celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz embraced the little larva-shaped car, and squadrons of them ferried stars to the Oscars. More than 4.4 million have been sold worldwide since the model’s introduction two decades ago.

But sales peaked in the U.S. in 2012, and its descent roughly follows the rise of Tesla Inc.’s sleek fully electric cars including the more mass market Model 3 sedan. “It’s a competitive business,” Bob Carter, Toyota Motor Corp.’s executive vice president for U.S. sales, said in an interview. “There are some people who trade in their Prius for a Model 3 -- I’m well aware of that. But it’s still a very small part of the market.”

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