Toyota to expand hybrid lineup

Toyota to expand hybrid lineup

Toyota is damn serious about their efforts with hybrid vehicles. They are already the pioneers in this field and the best seller of hybrid vehicles in the world. Their Toyota Prius is a best seller and they now plan to develop more such vehicles. The immediate plan is to launch 10 new models by the early part of the next decade. The near term plan is to boost its worldwide sales of the fuel-sipping models to 1 million units a year.

They are the second largest vehicle manufacturers in the world and now aim to have at least 25% of their sales coming from hybrids in the coming years. Jim Press, Toyota’s U.S. president and chief operating officer was addressing an auto conference when he said: “We have 10 hybrids under development right now. At our current rate of sales, that’s about 600,000 hybrids in the U.S. To achieve that goal, we will have to look at offering hybrid power systems in virtually all our vehicles, including trucks.”

Some of the future models to be powered by this hybrid technology include Toyota’s best-selling Camry sedan and Lexus GS sedan. They have already notified that they are working on doubling the manufacturing capacity of the Toyota Prius vehicle to meet the increased demand in the American market. Boosted by this consumer interest, it became more important to look towards developing more hybrids in the future.

U.S. sales of the Prius were up 92 percent at 9,691 vehicles in July. In addition, the company also sold 2,564 hybrid versions of its Highlander sport utility vehicle.