Toyota Prius C not coming to the UK – Yaris Hybrid instead

Mon, 24 Oct 2011

Toyota Prius C - leaked in the photo above - is not coming to the UK

Just last week we revealed that the new compact Prius City car – dubbed the Toyota Prius C – has leaked out in Japan from a brochure, ahead of an expected debut at the Tokyo Motor Show next month. But the UK won’t be getting the Prius C.

A Toyota spokesman has said that with the UK already having the UK-built Auris Hybrid – and the Yaris Hybrid arriving next year – there are no plans to bring the new small Prius to the UK. Which makes sense – at least on one level.

The Prius C is very similar in size to the Yaris, so Toyota would end up with two small city hybrids competing for the same piece of the market. Which really doesn’t make much sense, although with plans afoot to turn every Toyota in to a hybrid we do wonder where that leaves the Prius ‘Brand’.

Toyota has made it clear that Prius is not destined to be a sub-brand of hybrid cars within the Toyota range, but despite that assertion we have the Prius C launching in Japan, the Prius+ in the UK and Europe and the Prius V in the US. It all seems a bit uncoordinated.

It remains to be seen whether Toyota will go the route of naming future hybrid cars as Prius in Japan and as hybrid versions of regular Toyotas in the UK and Europe.

But although we won’t be getting the Prius C in the UK, the Yaris Hybrid is arguably a better car anyway. We’ve been driving the new Yaris this week, and it’s a properly good little car.