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The Prius V will arrive in the U.S. this summer.

A production version of the Prius C will arrive next year.
Hybrids will be in more countries with new models by 2012

Toyota is generally the name that most consumers think of when talking hybrid cars. The company’s Prius is the most popular hybrid vehicle in the world. Toyota also provides its hybrid technology to other carmakers as well (Nissan Altima Hybrid).

Toyota has announced that is sales of hybrid vehicles have hit a new landmark -- it has now sold 3 million hybrid cars globally. The 3 million mark was hit on February 28, 2011. Toyota put its first hybrid, the Coaster Hybrid EV, on the Japanese market in 1997; it was closely followed by the launch of the first generation Prius. The Prius then made its way to North America and Europe in 2000.

Counting the Lexus brand, Toyota currently has 16 hybrid vehicles that are available in roughly 80 different countries and regions around the globe (three of those hybrids are commercial vehicles offered in Japan). Toyota also notes that ten new hybrid vehicles are due by the end of 2012 with six being new launches and four being new designs of existing vehicles. Toyota will also be offering the hybrids in new countries and regions as well.

Toyota says that its calculations show that the hybrid fleet it sells has kept 18 million tons of CO2 from being put into the atmosphere compared to the same number of traditional vehicles on the road. Toyota cites the 3 millions sales mark as evidence that the hybrid is going mainstream.

Toyota announced in August of 2009 that is had sold a million hybrid vehicles in Japan alone. 

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By Pirks on 3/9/2011 12:23:44 PM , Rating: 2
Man this sweetest dream of mine will never come true :( So sad




By Philippine Mango on 3/10/2011 4:55:37 AM , Rating: 2
They COULD make the Yaris get 60mpg, the reason why they haven't done so is because few people want a 5-speed manual car that does 0-60 in 10-11 seconds.. No need for hybrid to get those fuel economy numbers and considering the size of the Yaris, making it a hybrid would make an already small car too small. The Yaris doesn't get 50mpg+ because of its transmission gearing which I'd consider to be "short", or "rev happy". This gives the car "pep" at the cost of fuel economy. If they paired the USDM Yaris with a dual VVTI engine that is designed with fuel economy in mind (not necessarily atkinson cycle) with a "tall" geared transmission, you'd be seeing 50mpg+ easily with the Yaris, maybe more. Ignorance on Toyota's part, the market has been so pampered with automatic transmissions and "fast 0-60 times", that they can't bear to consider anything but it, or maybe a little of both. Either way, they can do it, TODAY, question is would enough people buy it?


By FITCamaro on 3/10/2011 7:33:49 AM , Rating: 2
Yeah I don't really know why anyone would buy a Yaris or Fit over a Corolla or Civic. There is not really any gas mileage difference between the two and the Corolla and Civic give you more room without being much more expensive.


By Pirks on 3/10/2011 10:30:14 AM , Rating: 1
Yeah I don't really know why anyone would buy a Corolla or Civic over a Yaris or Fit, when there is gas mileage difference between the two and the Corolla and Civic are more expensive without giving you much more room.


By Pirks on 3/10/2011 10:21:25 AM , Rating: 1
quote:
few people want a 5-speed manual car
That's an old urban legend about manual tranny being "more efficient" than automatic one. Case in point: Ford Fiesta DCT automatic tranny is MORE EFFICIENT fuel economy wise than the manual one.

0-60 in 10 seconds is also an urban legend, saying that people MUST BE foot heavy. The amount of drivers who _really_ want and need uberfast speed monsters is infinitely small, for most city and highway driving 0-60 in 10 is more than enough.

I say automakers are just too dumb to realize that those small cars with super efficient DCT _automatic_ trannies (MORE EFFICIENT than manual ones, see Ford Fiesta example again please), stellar fuel economy of 50+ mpg and 0-60 in 10 would be in great demand, if they are as cheap as Yaris. Only a few people with bigger pockets would waste their money on gas guzzlers like Mustang or Camaro, to zip between red traffic lights a FULL SECOND faster than all the other drivers, woohoo! I say let auto industry feed these idiots with a few expensive fuel inefficient models, but please make fuel efficient DCT equipped 50+ mpg Yaris-alikes for the smarter rest of us. What's the problem with that?


By Spuke on 3/10/2011 12:12:40 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
0-60 in 10 seconds is also an urban legend, saying that people MUST BE foot heavy. The amount of drivers who _really_ want and need uberfast speed monsters is infinitely small, for most city and highway driving 0-60 in 10 is more than enough.
So anyone that drives a car with a 0-60 of faster than 10 seconds is a speed monster?

1. 0-60 is meaningless, no one cares, not even in the US.
2. Americans (I assume that's whom we're discussing) want a decently accelerating car. There's no hard fast number it's just a feeling. Given the lack of painfully slow cars on the US market, one could make a correlation to 0-60 times to see what rate of acceleration is acceptable here BUT the number is meaningless and if you ask someone normal (ie not us nerds), they'll tell you so.
3. Americans like room, we have wide open freeways, larger homes (cause they're cheap...can anyone in the EU get a 3000 sq ft house on an acre for $150,000 USD....didn't think so), wide open cities (NYC and the northeast is an exception but they're old so they're forgiven), we have larger families, 50% of the population lives outside urban centers so it makes sense that we pick larger vehicles. Also our cars are multi-purpose, we don't believe in paying a ton of money for something that only does one thing.
4. If you haven't been where I've been, how can you know where I'm coming from? Ya dig?
5. Until you understand number 4, your comments will be considered ignorant at best and based on your average comment rating, others obviously agree.


By cruisin3style on 3/10/2011 6:29:14 PM , Rating: 3
LOL

LOLOLOLOL

Old urban legend?? How about: until very recently, and only when utilizing new/refined technology, has it not been 100% true that a manual gearbox gets better fuel economy than an automatic with everything else being equal.

Please just...never post anything about cars again


By dnd728 on 3/10/2011 4:47:30 PM , Rating: 2
From Wikipedia:

The third generation Vitz was launched on December 22, 2010 in Yokohama, Japan. It will be launched in Europe and other countries by the end of 2011. Aerodynamic drag has been reduced with a coefficient drag value of 0.285.
This generation introduces a new 1.3 L engine which is more economical than the 1.0 L engine, according to Toyota Japan. New features also include automatic start-stop with this engine: claiming a 26.5 km/L (3.8L/100km or 62.3mpg) for the Japanese streets.

The Yaris HSD Concept was introduced at the March 2011 Geneva Motor Show featuring a hybrid powertrain. The Yaris Hybrid is expected to go on sale in Europe in 2012

Vitz=Yaris, I guess gear is CVT and mileage is probably by European/Japanese standards but US gallon, so real mileage would be a little lower for the non-hybrid.


i want one so bad...
By riottime on 3/9/2011 7:51:55 PM , Rating: 2
unfortunately, my non-hybrid toyota just won't die on me even after 16+ years. :(

i might donate it and go for a prius if gas prices keep going up. :(




RE: i want one so bad...
By sigmatau on 3/10/2011 12:28:41 AM , Rating: 2
I predict Prius markups are soon to come with gas approaching $4/gallon and many expect them to go higher.

Same thing happened when we had $5/gallon gas a few years back.


RE: i want one so bad...
By FITCamaro on 3/10/2011 8:59:10 AM , Rating: 2
Maybe you had $5/gallon gas. I never paid above $4.20/gallon for premium.

And I think prices will settle back down once investors get more confidence. If things in the Middle East will settle down along with the Republicans forcing the administration to stop the unlawful (as decided by a federal judge) moratorium on gulf drilling, then prices should stabilize. Probably not as "low" as before but probably back to the $3.00/gallon range.


RE: i want one so bad...
By topkill on 3/14/2011 7:13:52 AM , Rating: 2
We might as well drill and get as much oil as we can, but don't expect it to make a material difference in oil prices. We have well below 5% of all known oil reserves even if you include ANWAR and all the offshore drilling we can do...yet we consume over 20% of the world's oil.

The math just doesn't work. The 70's oil crisis was brought about because of a 2% drop in oil supply to the US. Do you really think drilling a few more wells is going to change reality?

Then there is the whole supply/demand thing. The US gets over 70% of our oil from foreign sources. They provide the VAST majority of world oil supply and set the price. What??? You think Exxon is going to drill oil and say "gee, the rest of the world will pay me $120 a barrel, but we're good guys and we drilled this in US waters so we'll sell it to Americans for $60 a barrel." ??? ROFLMFAO

Do you guys ever think about how the world really works?

Drill baby, drill! And all our problems will go away! And the Easter Bunny will bring you lots of treats to go with that cheap oil! ROFLMFAO!!!!!


RE: i want one so bad...
By Spuke on 3/10/2011 12:18:24 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
unfortunately, my non-hybrid toyota just won't die on me even after 16+ years. :(
Keep your car. It will cost you MORE money to buy a new one regardless of the fuel efficiency gain.


RE: i want one so bad...
By usbseawolf2000 on 3/10/2011 12:41:47 PM , Rating: 2
Buying any new car will not save money. People still do it for safety reasons and other new features.

The best choice maybe to buy a used Prius if he wants it so bad.


score: toyota, 3,000,000; GM, <300
By bjacobson on 3/9/2011 12:27:03 PM , Rating: 1
Please enter the comment text




By carniver on 3/9/2011 12:47:25 PM , Rating: 1
Apples to oranges. More than 10 years of sales vs less than 10 months.


RE: score: toyota, 3,000,000; GM, <300
By cruisin3style on 3/9/2011 3:29:59 PM , Rating: 2
My question is how many Volts are being produced vs. the 300 sales number.

And how well did the 1st generation Prius sell in the first few months of its release?


By Keeir on 3/9/2011 4:49:27 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
My question is how many Volts are being produced vs. the 300 sales number.


Only ~950 Volts have EVER been produced for sale to consumers. All ~950 have been sold or are in the hands of dealers attempting to price gouge.

Unless the plan has changed recently, the Volt will be in limited production until this summer. Even then, the Volt production rate will be ~60,000 a year (for the world). Thats only 5,000 a month.

This is actually fairly similar to the Prius, although slightly more agressive.

The First Prius (XW10) was released in late 1997 in Japan. From 1997 to mid-2000 it was only sold in Japan and produced at a rate of ~20,000 a year. They sold them all, but the First Generation Prius was a Financial Loss for Toyota.

In 2001, Toyota released the Second Generation Prius (XW11) which was sold essentially worldwide. It was produced at a peak of ~30,000 a year in 2003. Toyota claims the NW11, which was a slight adjustment of the NW10 was a financial success.

In 2003/2004, Toyota released the Third Generation Prius (XW20), which was a major change. This was the first Prius model that was actual produced in quantity (120,000+ a year) and of course was a market success as well.

I would point out as well that the XW11 recieved 2008 EPA ratings of 42/41, was significantly smaller car than the 2011 version, cost about the same in inflation adjusted dollars, and of course had significant amout of lower features.


By FITCamaro on 3/9/2011 4:10:27 PM , Rating: 2
You realize GM has been selling hybrid Saturns, Chevy's, and GMCs for several years now right?

You're only counting the Volt. Obviously their number isn't as high as Toyota's. But its not like they just released their first hybrid with the Volt.


Context
By Keeir on 3/9/2011 12:40:33 PM , Rating: 2
As impressive as this is,

Keep in mind that since 1997, Toyota has made more than 100 million autos.

But, In the US in 2010, about 10% of Toyota Sales were hybrid (~188,000 Hybrids to ~1.8 million total). Thats more impressive. But if you get rid of the Prius sales, the other hybrid models are less impressive (~50,000 to ~1.6 million total for 4 other models)




By Integral9 on 3/10/2011 9:08:13 AM , Rating: 2
I say it's time to make them get a passenger. Batteries aren't people.




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