Toyota has sold 15 million hybrids since the Prius arrived

Toyota has now sold 15 million hybrid cars worldwide since the Prius arrived, almost three million in Europe and 356,000 in the UK.

Who would have guessed that the arrival of the slightly odd first generation Toyota Prius in 1997 (well, 2000 in the UK) would be the start of a whole new way of powering cars? Well, maybe Toyota did (or hoped) but few others thought the complications worth the effort.

But two decades on from Toyota’s foray in to electrification with the Prius, Toyota are now celebrating producing the 15 millionth Toyota Hybrid, with getting on for three million of those sold in Europe and 356,000 in the UK, with Toyota Hybrids accounting for around two thirds of Toyota’s sales in the UK.

The Prius has now been overtaken in the UK’s Hybrid sales by the Toyota Yaris Hybrid, and with a new Yaris just revealed, and the Yaris Cross on the way too, that’s a direction of travel likely to continue.

Toyota’s Matt Harrison said:

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

In addition, all our full hybrids are effective in running without emissions for most of the time when driven in cities.

Toyota reckon their Hybrids have saved the planet from 120 million tonnes of CO₂, compared to equivalent petrol vehicles, and that they’re planning 40 new or updated models in the next three years, almost all of which will use electrification of one sort or another, be it hybrid, plug-in hybrid, Pure Electric or Hydrogen.