The Toyota Prius has just become one of the world’s best-selling cars and it features today among 20 different hybrids including the first Toyota plug-in hybrid sold by Toyota Motor Corporation in around 80 countries and regions. That figure is set to grow as the company plans to introduce 18 new hybrids and a fuel cell vehicle within the next two years.
Toyota calculates that its hybrid vehicles have contributed to around 34 million tonnes3 less CO2 entering the atmosphere, compared to the impact of the same number of petrol-powered vehicles of similar size and performance. In terms of fuel, it estimates on the same basis that 1.2 billion litres of petrol have been saved.
Toyota plans to continue working to further raise performance, reduce costs and expand its hybrid product range.
The way in which customers have come to understand and embrace hybrid is reflected in the speed of sales growth: in Europe it took seven years for the first 100,000 to be sold, while in 2012 alone the figure was more than 109,000. In the first quarter of 2013 European sales have increased 82 per cent year-on-year, accounting for 21 per cent of the Toyota’s sales total.
