The million milestone was passed by the Toyota Prius at the end of April.
Initially launched as a niche vehicle, the Prius became a mainstream product for the Japanese giant. The Prius started its career in December 1997 in Japan. Reserved to the Japanese market at first, the Prius was exported in small quantities in Europe and the US in 2000. The second generation launched in 2003 brought the Prius to the media attention thanks to a smart campaign based on Hollywood stars.
Of the 1,028,000 Prius sales worldwide, 591,600 were sold in North America and 315,000 in Japan and 100,700 in Europe Toyota said.
Toyota also claims that Prius vehicles worldwide have contributed to a significant reduction in CO2 emissions by producing approximately 4.5 million tons less CO2 when compared with petrol-powered vehicles in the same class and of similar size and driving performance. This is a bold claim from Toyota as the carmaker doesn’t explain how it calculated the amount of CO2 and the engines taken into account in the comparion test.
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