Toyota and Lexus celebrate 15 million hybrids sold

Toyota and its premium offshoot, Lexus, have announced that since the first Toyota Prius went on sale back in 1997 they have sold an incredible 15 million hybrids globally.

Although it's now regarded as the global leader in hybrid vehicle technology, Toyota admits that initial uptake of the first Prius was slow-going and it took 12 years for it to sell two million hybrids by August 2009.

However, adoption of hybrid vehicles has ramped up dramatically since then and by March 2013 Toyota had sold five million of them.

In Australia a total of 134,200 hybrid have been sold to date, but that number is climbing rapidly. In 2020, almost 25 per cent of all Toyotas sold are now hybrid models, leading the Japanese brand to claim its hybrid vehicles are now 'mainstream'.

Toyota says that local sales of hybrid vehicles have tripled during the last two years, from less than 8500 in 2017 to 27,800 in 2019.

Toyota Australia sales and marketing chief, Sean Hanley, said hybrids are now more affordable and convenient than ever, and this is reflected in buyer behaviour.

He said that Toyota "...continues to lead the development of various types of electrified vehicles, reducing emissions based on market regulations, infrastructure and customer demand."

Toyota is planning to expand beyond hybrids with its first EV due this year in Japan, and more models on the way from 2021.

"It will be a future in which different electrified technologies all play a part, including hybrid electric, plug-in hybrid electric, fuel-cell electric and battery-electric vehicles," stated Hanley.

Commenting on the hybrid's sales success, vice president of Toyota Motor Europe, Matt Harrison added:

"It is thanks to our hybrid sales that Toyota is well on its way to meeting the 95g/km target set by the EU for 2020 and 2021 in Europe, where CO2 regulations are the toughest in the world."