Hybrid car market leader now plans to invest in new range powered by hydrogen cells
(Pic: Toyota)
Toyota Motor Europe has attributed its third consecutive year of growth to the “outstanding performance” of its hybrid vehicles, which now make up a fifth of the company’s sales.
In 2013, sales of Toyota’s hybrid vehicles climbed to over 156,000 units, a 43% increase on 2012. Of these, 116,383 were produced in Europe – more than double the previous year.
One in five of the vehicles sold by Toyota Motor Europe are hybrid cars, with an even higher density of 28% in western Europe, the company announced in a blog post today.
Total sales for the company amounted to 847,540 in 2013, an increase of 9,569 units over 2012. This strengthened the manufacturer’s market share by 0.2% to 4.7%.
Toyota has recently announced that it plans to introduce another clean vehicle in 2015 – a car powered by hydrogen cells, where the only emission is of water vapour.
The concept car was displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this month, alongside a number of other energy saving gadgets.