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Toyota's hybrids pass 1 million mark

Toyota said yesterday that global sales of its hybrid vehicles have topped 1 million since they were first introduced a decade ago, a landmark for the Japanese automaker that leads the world in "green" cars.

It took Toyota, which pioneered mass production of the low pollution gasoline-electric vehicles along with Honda, eight years to sell its first half million hybrids but less than two years after that to hit the 1 million mark.

Toyota Motor Corp's cumulative sales of gas-and-electric-powered vehicles totaled 1.047 million as of the end of last month. Of those, nearly 345,000 hybrids were sold in Japan, while 702,000 were sold abroad, the company said in a statement.

The Prius is the clear leader, with a total of 757,600 units sold since its 1997 introduction in Japan. Toyota began selling the Prius in North America, Europe and other places in 2000. Last year, the model made up more than 40 percent of hybrid sales in the US.

Demand for hyrids, which deliver superior mileage by switching between a gasoline engine and electric motor, has soared amid higher oil prices and greater consumer concern about pollution and global warming.

But US sales have stagnated just as Toyota ramped up production and the automaker has begun resorting to special deals to attract customers once willing to wait months for a vehicle that became a status symbol among the environmentally-conscious.

Toyota offers several other hybrid models, including the hybrid Camry and hybrid Lexus models.

Toyota also began selling its most expensive hybrid, the ¥15 million (US$124,000) Lexus LS 600h recently in Japan.

Toyota produces its hybrids in Japan, in China since 2005, and in Kentucky in the US since last year.

But Honda Motor Co has found that not all hybrids sell well. Earlier this week, Japan's No. 2 automaker said it would discontinue the hybrid version of its Accord sedans. Sales of the hybrid, available only in North America, totaled just 439 last month, while Toyota sold 24,000 Prius cars during the same period.

Last year, Honda said it would stop making the slow-selling Honda Insight hybrid, but it is promising a new US hybrid competitor in 2009. Honda continues to sell the hybrid Civic, which has sold more than 153,000 since going on sale in 2001.
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