Toyota Hybrids exceed 100,000 European sales

The combined sales of Toyota and Lexus hybrids has now reached the 100,000 landmark for vehicles sold in the European market since their introduction in 2000. Interestingly, more than half this figure were sold in the last 13 months, further highlighting the increased European uptake of hybrid units. Stateside, units sold to April 2007 stood at over 500,000, accounting for over half the 1,000,000 cumulative sales of hybrid units worldwide.

Toyota's world-famous Prius model now tops the hybrid charts, shifting over 73,000 units in European markets since 2000, while Lexus hybrid models have now exceeded 27,000 European sales. Toyota expects annual hybrid sales in 2007 to reach 44,500 units.

"These results demonstrate a dramatic shift amongst European customers towards cleaner vehicles which offer greater fuel efficiency and a comfortable and powerful drive," said Thierry Dombreval, Executive Vice-President of Toyota Motor Europe.

Toyota now have four models featuring the firm's Hybrid Synergy Drive or Lexus' Hybrid Drive technologies and have a 1 million units per year target for hybrid vehicles sold worldwide - to be reached by 2010. European sales would be expected to comprise 10 percent of this target.