Toyota sells one million Prius hybrids

Key to this achievement has been the global acceptance of the Toyota Prius as a high volume model.

Toyota launched the Prius – the world's first mass produced hybrid vehicle – in Japan in 1997. This model was introduced into key export markets in North America and Europe in 2000. The second-generation Prius, based on the Toyota Hybrid System II, or Hybrid Synergy Drive, was introduced in 2003 as a model that offered a refined balance between power and environmental performance.

While the Prius is the volume seller for Toyota, the company has introduced this technology across a range of vehicles including small commercial vehicles, minivans, SUVs, and rear wheel drive sedans including hybrid options in the Lexus luxury vehicle range.

Toyota hybrids are now sold in more than 40 countries around the world, including South Africa. To meet demand, production has been expanded outside of Japan with production in Changchun, China, initiated in 2005, and in Kentucky in the United States in 2006.

Toyota calculates that sales of the company's hybrid passenger vehicles since 1997 have resulted in 3.5 million tons less CO₂ emitted into the atmosphere than the same number of similar sized vehicles with the same driving performance powered by conventional petrol engine drivetrains.

This calculation is based on the number of registered vehicles, fuel used, distance travelled and a CO₂ conversion factor.

Toyota regards response to environmental issues as a priority management issue. As such the company has made a concerted effort to popularise hybrid vehicle systems with the aim of selling one million hybrids a year.