Hybrid milestone for Toyota

TOYOTA has delivered its four-millionth hybrid-powered vehicle, notching up the last million in just 14 months compared with 10 years for the first million.

Figures released today by the company include Lexus hybrid sales and show that the milestone was reached in late April.

In the first four months of this year, hybrid vehicles have accounted for 15 per cent of Toyota’s global vehicles sales – amounting to 425,000 sold, which is already better than two-thirds of the 2011 full-year total.

Toyota said this puts the company on track to sell more than one million hybrid vehicles in a year for the first time.

In Australia – where Prius sales almost halved last year to 822 units, perhaps due to the arrival of the Lexus CT 200h (1311 sales) – the company’s hybrid sales should be boosted by the recent launch of the larger Prius V people-mover and the smaller Prius C, an updated Prius hatch and the second-generation locally produced Camry Hybrid.

Of the four million hybrids sold globally since the first-generation Prius was launched in Japan in 1997, Prius has accounted for 2.6 million sales, Camry Hybrid has attracted 270,000 buyers and the Prius V and Prius C newcomers have already racked up 250,000 sales.

It took Toyota almost 10 years to post the first one million sales, but the second million was sold in two years and three months, and the third million in just 18 months.