Prius was offered to the market at a reasonable price and made choosing a hybrid vehicle an ordinary choice. It is truly the world's first mass produced hybrid vehicle in reality and in name.



Global sales of Toyota's hybrid vehicles, mainly of its Prius model, have topped the 500,000 mark, with around 513,000 units sold worldwide by the end of October. These cars cleverly combine a conventional petrol engine with batteries and an electric motor to maximize fuel economy. Toyota launched the Prius "the world's first mass-produced hybrid " in Japan in 1997 and began selling it in North America and Europe in 2000. In 2001 in Japan, it added a minivan, luxury sedan and hybrid truck. In 2003, Toyota introduced the second-generation Prius and the Alphard MPV in Japan.

In Canada hybrid cars are not yet big sellers, but these fuel-efficient, low-polluting cars are a growing presence on Canada's highways.

Toyota Canada Inc. announced Wednesday the sale of its 5,000th second-generation Prius mid-size hybrid, which remains a modest figure in the auto business. But sales are up by 30 per cent so far this year, which is worth noting.

In Europe the european diesel-dominated market is showing signs of slowly warming up to hybrid vehicles. Toyota Motor Europe recently announced that the cumulative European sales of both Toyota and Lexus hybrid vehicles passed 50,000 units. A total of about 41,000 Prius hybrids have been sold since it went on sale in Europe in 2000. Sales of the Lexus RX400h and GS 450h have reached a total of over 10,000 units in just 17 months of sales. While 50,000 hybrids sold might seem like an impressive number, the worldwide cumulative sales of Toyota and Lexus reached almost 635,000 units on April 1. This indicates a relatively low penetration in Europe compared to other markets, such as the United States, with over 260,000 Prius cars sold.

In the U.S. the Internal Revenue Service announced September 2006 that Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. has submitted quarterly reports indicating that its cumulative sales of qualified vehicles to retail dealers has reached the 60,000-vehicle limit during the calendar quarter ending June 30, 2006. Under the current tax law, the credit for buying a hybrid vehicle begins to phase out during the second calendar quarter after the quarter in which the company sells its 60,000th hybrid or lean burn technology vehicle.

The credit for all new advanced lean burn technology motor vehicles or new qualified hybrid passenger automobiles or light trucks manufactured by Toyota Motor Corporation will begin to phase out on Oct. 1, 2006.

Vehicles purchased before Oct. 1, 2006 qualify for the full credit. For Toyota hybrid vehicles bought on or after October 1, 2006, and on or before March 31, 2007, the credit is 50 percent of the otherwise allowable credit amount. Taxpayers buying vehicles on or after April 1, 2007, and on or before September 30, 2007, can only get 25 percent of the credit.

Toyota saw a 'hiccup' in hybrid sales November 2006. The Prius saw sales drop to 8,733 units sold, a drop of 12.1%. The first time in 5 months sales have seen a decrease from last year and only the fifth time sales have dropped in two years. Toyota blamed some of the other decreases, not on lack of demand, but on lack of production, as the Toyota Camry was being built in the same plant. So, it's interesting to see a drop here.

The Toyota Highlander Hybrid and Lexus RX 400h also saw decrease to 1643 and 1239 units sold, respectively. That's a decrease of 29.5% for the Highlander Hybrid and 34.9% for the RX 400h. The Toyota Camry saw 2806 units sold in October and the Lexus GS 450h sold 177 units. Neither were on sale last October and so there is no comparison.

So, despite seeing drops in all four vehicles being sold last October, Toyota still managed to increase sales of its hybrids from last October by 3.0%. If we took out the Camry and GS 450h, however, Toyota Hybrid sales would have been seen to drop 18.0%. Its possible Toyota is starting to see some sales decrease because of the phasing out of its federal tax credit.