Toyota Motor has now sold over half a million units of its petrol-electric Prius – 504,696 from 1997 to the end of April 2006.
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Sales began in Japan in 1997 when just 323 cars were delivered. Volume rose to 17,653 in 1998 and dipped to 15,243 a year later before rising again to 19,011 in 2,000 when exports began. That first year, 6,498 went overseas, 5,788 to North America and 709 to Europe.
Sales in 2001 totalled 29,459, a year when 137 cars were shipped to another new market, Australia, and dipped to 28,083 in 2002, the final year of the first generation car.
An all-new model made its debut in Japan in 2003 and yearly volume world-wide soared to 43,162.
European sales rose from 859 to 8,136 in the second generation car’s first full year, 2004, and overall volume world-wide almost tripled to 125,742. 2004 was also the peak year for Japanese market sales – 59,767.
Last year’s sales rose 39% to 175,157 with 43,673 sold in Japan, 56,419 in North America, 8,136 in Europe and 1,094 in Australia.
In January to April 2006, 50,863 units were sold, off 11% year on year.
Prius assembly began recently in China.
