Prius sales top two million

The Toyota Prius has again reiterated its position as the world's number one-selling hybrid vehicle, with the purchase last week of the two-millionth example since production began more than 13 years ago.

It took Toyota more than a decade to sell its first million of the Prius, the second million clocking up in less than a quarter of that time. Last year, more than 400,000 current-generation cars were produced, taking Toyota's overall sales of hybrid vehicles to over 2.8 million.

Popularity of the petrol-electric hybrid hatch varies from region to region, with highlights including 940,000 units in North America, 825,000 in Toyota's home country of Japan, 206,000 in Europe and 40,000 in the rest of the world -- the car now sold in more than 70 countries and regions.

Australia alone has contributed to more than 16,200 Prius sales since the model was first launched here in October 2001.

Toyota says that Prius alone has reduced the world's CO2 emissions by approximately 11 million tons when compared against petrol-powered vehicles in the same class and of similar size and driving performance.

After Prius, the most popular Toyota hybrid is the Hybrid Camry with more than 200,000 sales globally.

Toyota Australia's senior executive director sales and marketing David Buttner said there were strong reasons behind the accelerating sales of Prius.

"Motorists are becoming increasingly aware that hybrid technology delivers performance as well as significant savings on the cost of fuel," explained Toyota Australia's senior executive director of sales and marketing, David Buttner. "That trend will gain pace as other manufacturers announce plans to introduce their own hybrid vehicles -- a development Toyota welcomes."

Toyota aims to sell one-million hybrid vehicles globally per annum this decade.

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