Malaysia's UMW Toyota today held a twin launch for its updated Prius and the all new Prius c.

With an on the road price with insurance at RM 97,000 (US$ 32,000), the Prius c is the cheapest hybrid on sale in Malaysia, at least until the Honda Jazz Hybrid is launched next month. The Prius c undercuts the Honda Insight by nearly RM 3,000.

UMW Toyota targets to sell 2,500 units of the Prius c this year, a very conservative figure in our opinion. The Prius alone sold over 2,700 units last year while Honda shifted 4,566 units of the sub-RM100k Insight over the same period.

The Prius c is made at Toyota's Kanto Auto Works' plant in Iwate Prefecture. In Japan, the Aqua, as the Prius c is known there, has been over-booked by 10 times with waiting period now stretching to 6 months. However, UMW Toyota's President En. Ismet Suki assured Malaysian buyers that they can expect a waiting period of between two to three months.

The Prius c project is headed by chief engineer Satoshi Ogiso, the only member in the Prius development team who has been involved in the Prius project since the first generation model (codenamed project "G21"). At 32 years old, Ogiso-san was the youngest member of the G21 project back in 1993.

In 2007, Ogiso-san, now chief engineer of Prius, Prius c, Prius v, Prius PHEV and all things electric and fuel-cell in Toyota, was tasked with the massive project of democratizing ownership of hybrid Toyota models. This meant creating a more affordable, less polarizing hybrid model.

The Prius c was developed under the concept "Next Decade Compact Hybrid," with a design theme guided by the key words "Eco-fun." The letter 'c' in the Prius c's nameplate refers to Compact, Clean, Clever and City - four attributes that sums up the virtues of the Prius c.