The Toyota Prius has long been the butt of jokes about green cars, and now it's being spurned even further. Fifteen percent of Tesla's conquest sales, sales made to previous owners of other brands, come from former Toyota owners. That's more than any other brand, with Mercedes-Benz and BMW coming next with a little more than 10 percent each.
"The pure conquest data show that the Model S is conquesting owners of Toyota vehicles more frequently than owners of any other brand,” Polk Automotive analyst Tom Libby told Wired. “The Prius is at the top of that list, with the Toyota Highlander SUV and Sienna minivan ranking fifth and sixth overall."
Even though a lot of Tesla owners have been poached from Toyota, that doesn't mean Tesla is taking a huge chunk away from Toyota's base. Tesla sold 22,450 Model S vehicles in 2013, while Toyota sold 234,228 cars from the Prius family.
Tesla's got momentum, but it's going to take a lot more to wound Toyota instead of just poking at it.
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[via Wired]
