Prius reaches magic million
Toyota's hybrid rolls into seven figuresWhatever your thoughts about the true green credentials of cars like the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid, there's little doubt the small petrol-electrics have captured the imagination of buyers, locally and world-wide.
So much so that Toyota tells us it has now sold more than one million Prius models since the first version was launched in Japan in 1997.
In Australia, where the Corolla-size hybrid was introduced in 2001, more than 9000 vehicles have been sold.
Last year, the company sold a record 3176 Prius vehicles locally to register a 60 per cent improvement over 2006. According to Toyota, Australian sales for 2008 are running ahead of last year [Ed: almost 12 per cent] -- a performance being repeated in other markets around the world.
Toyota says its goal is to reach one-million hybrid sales per year during the 2010s, and plans to ultimately offer hybrid versions of every production car.
| Year | Month | Milestones |
| 1997 | Mar | Unveiling of the Toyota Hybrid System |
| Dec | Prius launched in Japan | |
| 2000 | Nov | Cumulative Prius sales top 50,000 vehicles |
| 2001 | Dec | Prius launched in Australia |
| 2002 | Mar | Cumulative worldwide sales of hybrid vehicles top 100,000 |
| Aug | Cumulative Prius sales top 100,000 vehicles worldwide | |
| 2003 | Apr | Unveiling of the Toyota Hybrid System II |
| Sep | Prius completely redesigned | |
| Oct | Second-generation Prius launched in Australia | |
| 2004 | Jan | Prius wins North American Car of the Year award |
| Nov | Prius wins European Car of the Year award | |
| 2005 | Oct | Cumulative worldwide sales of hybrid vehicles top 500,000 |
| 2006 | Apr | Cumulative Prius sales top 500,000 vehicles worldwide |
| 2007 | May | Cumulative worldwide sales of hybrid vehicles top 1 million |
| 2008 | Apr | Cumulative Prius sales top one million worldwide |
| Prius sales - worldwide | ||
| Year | Sales | Cumulative |
| 1997 (Dec) | 323 | 323 |
| 1998 | 17,653 | 17,976 |
| 1999 | 15,243 | 33,219 |
| 2000 | 19,011 | 52,230 |
| 2001 | 29,459 | 81,689 |
| 2002 | 28,083 | 109,772 |
| 2003 | 43,162 | 152,934 |
| 2004 | 125,742 | 278,676 |
| 2005 | 175,157 | 453,833 |
| 2006 | 185,589 | 639,422 |
| 2007 | 281,265 | 920,687 |
| 2008 (April) | 107,100¹ | 1,027,700 |
1. TMC estimate
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