Toyota Prius Case

When Toyota first introduced the Prius into the market, I am sure they faced several micro environmental factors that affected their ability to serve its customers. As the article pointed out, American’s have always been drawn to “vehicle size and horsepower” and “fuel sippers” were rarely seen on the roads. This would be a huge factor in the company’s confidence level as to whether the company should invest in these vehicles, or if they were going to completely flop. Another factor would be the suppliers of the resources needed to build these hybrid vehicles. They would need to find suppliers that had the time, resources and capability to produce enough components to make up the Prius. The customer market would also have to demand these vehicles, or else the investment would not work. As the years went by, however, the Prius proved to be a success, and it quickly became the “hottest car on the market.” Toyota dealt with the micro environmental factors by selling a lot of the vehicles, due to increasing gas prices. This made believers out of the company, suppliers, and competitors and even led to the development of a new and improved Prius with more horsepower, better gas mileage and more storage space and leg room.

Major macro environmental factors that affected the introduction and re-launch of the Prius would be how society views cars, trucks, and what they can do. Americans want fast cars that they can race, and big trucks that they can haul things with and the Prius does not do any of this. Americans also have been scared to move from a vehicle that they can fix by themselves in a garage to something that needs to be hooked up to a computer in order to see what is wrong with it. With the economic downturn, constant increasing gas prices, and technological advances, Toyota was able to appeal to more customers that actually need the Prius because they simply cannot afford the gas in their traditional vehicles. This downturn essentially changed the...