Having once predicted Toyota cars would be 30% hybrid by 2020, former chief engineer and current vice chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada is now more optimistic, he told reporters at a briefing in Tokyo on Wednesday.

“In eco-conscious countries, I believe that hybrid cars will become the majority,” Uchiyamada was quoted by the Wall Street Journal Japan. “I’d never really used the term ‘majority’ before, but I think it will go that way.”

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Uchiyamada spoke just after Toyota said it has sold its five millionth hybrid car. Last year, 40% of the cars it sold in Japan and 14% globally were hybrids.

The Prius and Aqua (Prius C) were first and second best sellers in fiscal 2012 sales by model in Japan, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.

But, the WSJ noted, the market share of all hybrid vehicles in the US was around 2.1% in 2011 while, in a 27-country average in Europe, the share of petrol-electric hybrid vehicles didn’t even reach 1% in the same year.

Uchiyamada said he was hybrids are superior to other alternative-energy vehicles, arguing the emissions technology for diesel vehicles is difficult to improve upon, and that recent hybrid models have the same level of heat efficiency as diesel cars.

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Electric vehicles are “still far behind in terms of running distance,” he told the WSJ.

“The battery, the battery charging capability and the cost – these problems will not be quickly resolved.”

Uchiyamada also said fuel cell vehicles are probably more viable as an alternative-energy technology, compared with EVs.