Toyota hybrid sales top 3m

The number of Toyota hybrid petrol-electric cars sold topped three million by the end of February, the manufacturer has confirmed.
Toyota estimates that these sales equate to a saving of 18 million tonnes of CO₂, compared to conventional petrol engined cars of similar size and performance.
The three million figure includes all Toyota and Lexus passenger cars and commercial vehicles sold worldwide, but the success is in large part thanks to the Prius: in May 2008 Prius sales officially topped one million.
Toyota put its first hybrid on sale in August 1997 - and it wasn't the Prius. While that car became the first mass-produced hybrid in December 1997, the very first commercial Toyota hybrid was the Coaster Hybrid EV coach.
The Prius didn't hit the UK until October 2000, and 73,000 have been sold here since, across three generations.
Toyota, by far the most prolific maker of hybrid passenger cars including its Lexus brand, will launch a further ten hybrids before the start of 2013. Six of them will be new, it says, and four will be current model updates.