Toyota Motor Corp.’s new Prius hybrid won more than 80,000 orders before even going on sale, prompting outgoing President Katsuaki Watanabe to call it the “savior” for Japan’s most unprofitable carmaker. Investors don’t share his faith. “Toyota shouldn’t be happy just because Prius orders are going up,” said Yuuki Sakurai, general manager of financial and investment planning in Tokyo at Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance Co., which manages the equivalent of $54 billion in assets. “What should worry it now is Lexus and high-end customers may shift to driving a Prius.”
Japan’s biggest automaker slashed production costs for the Prius by 30 percent in response to dwindling sales of bigger, more-lucrative models. Lexus sales in the U.S., the world’s biggest auto market, have fallen 37 percent this year through May, mirroring an overall plunge in demand caused by falling wages and rising unemployment.
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