Toyota ready with NY dealer incentives to move lots of Prius Plug-in Hybrids

Toyota appears to be in a New York State of Mind when it comes to trying to boost sales of its Prius Plug-in hybrid. The Japanese automaker wants to sell as many as 13,000 Prius PHEVs this year and is offering some deep discounts, especially in the Manhattan area, to hit that target, Wards Auto reports.

Specifically, Toyota is offering a $6,500 markdown on 2012 Prius PHEVs in parts of Manhattan and a $4,650 discount on this year's version. Those discounts are about twice as high as the $3,750 markdown on Ford C-Max and Fusion Energi PHEVs and dwarf the $500 discounts Toyota is giving to New York-area customers on the regular Prius hatchback and Prius V wagon.

Toyota sold 12,750 Prius Plug-ins last year, beating out the Nissan Leaf electric vehicles by about 2,800 units but just about half of the number of Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-ins sold. So far this year, Toyota has moved just 1,567 Prius Plug-ins, compared to almost 2,800 Volts that Chevrolet has sold.