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Last Friday's earthquake-tsunami disaster damaged a manufacturing plant that provides batteries for the Toyota Prius.
As a result, American consumers are anxious, with many scrambling to purchase the Toyota Prius before inventories disappear.
East and West coast dealers are seeing their inventories decline the fastest. High gas prices are adding to the increased demand.
With demand increasing, so are prices, which means shoppers should be prepared to pay more for fuel-efficient cars or be willing to wait a several months for supply to catch up.
Consumers can expect to pay at least $2,000 more for a Toyota Prius than they would have shortly before the earthquake.
Are there alternatives? If budget isn't an issue, there's the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf, but they're pretty much sold out for the year.
Then there's the Ford Focus Electric, not out yet and with limited availability.
The Ford Fusion and Nissan Altima hybrid cost more than the Prius and their fuel economy ratings are lower.
Other options are fuel-efficient gasoline cars like the Ford Fiesta, Chevrolet Cruze and the Hyundai Elantra.
All three can get up to 40 mpg on the highway, and you won't pay more than $18,200 for these models.
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