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.
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