Toyota Prius, the first Hybrid car that's widely accepted, with over 1 Million sold as of 2008, as shown in the chart below.
Since debuted in 1997, we can see that up till 2006, the cumulative sales of Prius only reached 500,000 but the next two years of sky rocketing fuel prices, Al Gore's award winning movie, Leonardo Di Caprio's extensive 'Driving-pass-paparazzis-in-Prius' efforts, Toyota budged the second 500,000 threshold in a mere 2 years.
Year | Annual Sales | Cumulative |
| 1997 (Dec) | 323 | 323 |
| 1998 | 17,653 | 17,976 |
| 1999 | 15,243 | 33,219 |
| 2000 | 19,011 | 52,230 |
| 2001 | 29,459 | 81,689 |
| 2002 | 28,083 | 109,772 |
| 2003 | 43,162 | 152,934 |
| 2004 | 125,742 | 278,676 |
| 2005 | 175,157 | 453,833 |
| 2006 | 185,589 | 639,422 |
| 2007 | 281,265 | 920,687 |
| 2008 (Apr) | 107,1001 | 1,027,700 |
Toyota had just recently announced that for the next remodelling of the Toyota Prius, solar panels will be mounted, to power the the air conditioning unit further reduce the load of the combustion engine, squeezing that teeny little bit more for your petrol.
We reckon if Toyota were to power the Prius using a modern diesel turbo charged engine, start stop technology, regenerative braking technology, coupled with the electric motor, solar panels on the roof, cover, bonnet, or perhaps using the thermodynamics technology where it's currently being R&Ded at BMW, we might be able to see something really astonishing.
Check out some photos of the Toyota Prius
