Prius sales down, but so is supply

Both and Jalopnik ran stories today about Toyota reporting lower sales numbers for the Prius, which were down 25 percent in April. Jalopnik added some wild speculation about why this might have happened, given the current high gas prices. But the real reason is fairly simple: there have been fewer Priuses available. At the Toyota hybrid seminar I attended last week, we were told that Prius production had been displaced for Camry Hybrid production. Prius demand has remained high, and the cars spend virtually no time on the lot. Because they are snapped up so quickly, any reduction in supply will translate immediately into lower sales.