Toyota finds a million Prius homes

THE car that has successfully become the byword for ‘hybrid’ around the world – the much-maligned Toyota Prius – has reached a significant milestone by passing the one million sales mark.

Often derided as a victory for marketing hype over substance, the Prius has nevertheless succeeded in being the poster boy for the concept of environmental responsibility and innovation by the automotive industry in the face of growing concern over global warming.

Toyota sold its one-millionth Prius last month, with most (590,000) going to the North American market. Australian buyers account for about 9300 sales since the model was released here in October 2001 – four years after it was launched in Japan.

With a string of awards and enormous publicity generated by well-meaning celebrities wanting to be seen on the right side of political correctness, Prius sales have been on a steep growth curve for the past decade.

It took more than eight years to reach 500,000 sales, but only another two years to double that mark.

Last year’s global total of 281,265 represented a 52 per cent growth over 2006 and a ten-fold increase over the 28,083 Series 1 Prius vehicles sold in 2002.

Toyota launched the second-generation Prius in 2003 and that car, with its greatly improved drive system, cleaned up both North American and European car of the year awards in 2004.

Despite the claimed economy and emissions advantages, Toyota has not produced another hybrid-powered economy car and now uses hybrid technology as a performance booster for vehicles as big as the Lexus LS600h luxury saloon and the RX400h SUV.

Read more:

First look: Toyota shows its next-gen hybrid hand