One Millionth Hybrid Vehicle Hits the American Road

In December 2007, an auto dealership employee somewhere in America handed a new owner the keys to the one millionth hybrid vehicle sold in this country. In that month, industry sales of 30,892 hybrids brought the cumulative total to 1,012,442 units.

This event occurred a month after Toyota recorded the sale of its 500,000th hybrid in the United States, and only a few months after Toyota Motor Corporation reached the one-million-unit mark in global production of hybrid vehicles.

U.S. hybrid sales began with the delivery of 17 Honda Insight cars -- a model now discontinued -- in December 1999. Toyota's first-generation Prius, model year 2001, entered the U.S. market with 841 sales in July 2000.

At the end of this eight-year run, more than half of all the hybrids ever sold in the United States bore the Prius marquee. Toyota's iconic hybrid accounted for 51 percent of sales; the Camry Hybrid and Highlander Hybrid, together with three hybrids from our corporate cousins at Lexus, brought the cumulative Toyota and Lexus market share to 72.7 percent.

Although hybrid sales have grown quickly in recent years -- 35 percent of the all-time sales were made in just the past year -- they accounted for only 2.2 percent of the 16.2 million cars and trucks sold in the United States in 2007. But hybrids accounted for a respectable 11.2 percent of Toyota Division sales last year, and 10.6 percent of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.'s combined deliveries of Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles. In fact, Prius ended 2007 as the third-best-selling vehicle in the Toyota lineup, behind Camry and Corolla.

Looking ahead, how long will it take for the auto industry to sell its second million hybrid vehicles? It's hard to say, considering that several manufacturers have hybrid models on the drawing board or on the test track. But if industrywide hybrid sales continue at the 2007 rate, that two millionth key will be handed to a new owner in less than 34 months.