Five million Toyota hybrids

Since the introduction of the first production hybrid back in 1997, Toyota - along with Lexus - has gone on to sell over five million hybrid vehicles. Toyota introduced its first production hybrid - aptly named the Coaster Hybrid EV - in August 1997. This model was sold only in Japan and was followed up four months later by the Prius.

Despite a slow sales start the Prius soon went on to become a very successful model for Toyota and it is still considered de rigueur for any environmentally conscious Hollywood star to be seen driving one. Lexus has also thoroughly adopted hybrid technology and offers a hybrid version of every car in the current model range.

Toyota has calculated that as of March 31 this year its hybrid vehicles have resulted in approximately 34 million fewer tonnes of CO₂ emissions worldwide and it also estimates that its hybrid vehicles have saved approximately 1.2 billion litres of petrol in comparison to what would have been used by petrol-powered vehicles of a similar size.

It took Toyota seven years to reach the first 100,000 hybrid sales in Europe, yet in 2012 alone, Toyota sold just under 110,000 hybrid vehicles constituting 21% of its overall European sales.

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