With its sales plummeting in the US, Toyota Motor Corp. is putting the brakes on its intention to construct the Toyota Prius in a fresh plant near Tupelo, Miss. The carmaker doesn’t know how long this postponement will be. The Japanese board of Toyota reached the conclusion late on Monday to stop the venture “due to the steep decline” in U.S. sales.

Hybrid vehicles sales have softened in previous weeks as gasoline prices plummeted from a summer spike of in excess of $4 per gallon. The Toyota Prius vended 8,660 vehicles in November, down from 16,737 in November of last year. The total sales for Toyota in the US went down 32 percent in November. This is the second time Toyota has altered plans on the $1.3 billion Mississippi venture, which has already begun to attract component providers to the region. In February last year, Toyota made it public that it would spend $1.3 billion in that region to manufacture a fresh generation of Highlander crossovers. But just after Toyota began work, SUV sales began to drop. Last July, Toyota announced that it intend to make the Prius there instead.

Tags: car news, toyota news, toyota prius

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