Published May 22, 2012
By Philippe Crowe
Japan’s Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announced its global hybrid vehicle sales totaled four million units, as of April 2012.
Toyota currently sells 18 hybrid passenger vehicles in 80 countries and regions around the world. This year, hybrid vehicle accounted for 15 percent of TMC’s global vehicle sales. The original Prius, Toyota’s first hybrid passenger car, went on sale in Japan in 1997. Hybrid technology was later introduced to the U.S. in 2000.
Since then, the Toyota Division of Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A. sold 1.5 million hybrid vehicles in the U.S., accounting for 65 percent of all hybrid vehicles sold in the region. Prius, which is now becoming a brand, comprises half of all hybrids on the road in the U.S. with sales totaling 1.2 million units through April 2012.
The expansion of the Prius has been successful in the U.S. since the Prius V was introduced to the market in November 2011, followed by the Prius C and Prius Plug-in during the first quarter 2012. In that time, Prius family sold 60,859 units in the U.S.
In addition to the Prius Family, Toyota’s other U.S. hybrid models include versions of the Camry and Highlander, which feature larger displacement applications of Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive.
Toyota calculates that the total number of its hybrid vehicles sold globally since 1997 contributed to approximately 26 million fewer tons of C02 emissions than would have been emitted by gasoline-powered vehicles of similar size and driving performance.
