autoevolution
 

Toyota Prius: Third Best Selling Car in the World

Toyota has managed to crawl back onto its throne in the first quarter of 2012, as the Japanese automaker managed to outsell its rivals, General Motors and Volkswagen, both of which dethroned it in 2011.
Toyota Prius 1 photo
Photo: Toyota
The new indicates that the time when other automakers could take away Toyota’s market share is over, and that the automaker’s decision making after last year’s Asian natural disasters that damaged production infrastructure and crippled Japan.

To achieve this result, Toyota put its faith in the Prius line of hybrid vehicles. First thought to be a niche car for people with Greenpeace member cards, sales of the hybrid car have topped 4 million units sold, and the car’s success is only rising due to the introduction of new models - subcompact hybrid called the Prius C and even a plug-in.

Combined sales of all the Prius models in the first quarter of 2012 totaled 247,230 units. This made it the third best selling car in the world, after the Toyota Corolla with 300,800 and the Ford Focus with 277,000 units.

This is partly due to the Prius C, as demand for this new product is very strong, but also because the Japanese government has always offered incentives for buyers of this sort of car.

Still, the fact that Toyota sold more of its Prius hybrid than Volkswagen managed to shift Golfs tells you something about the world nowadays.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Mihnea Radu
Mihnea Radu profile photo

Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories