Remember when we celebrated the 200,000th Toyota Prius being sold in Europe? 18 months later and Toyota has reached another milestone with the Hybrid Synergy Drive range, as the 400,000th hybrid car has now been handed to a customer on the continent. And this hybrid was built in Britain…
The Auris Hybrid was handed over to Valentine Nkwocha (pictured below), a company car driver in Belgium. Auris Hybrids have been manufactured at Toyota’s Burnaston plant in Derbyshire since 2010 and have helped build the popularity of hybrid cars with European customers, together with three generations of Prius
Tony Walker, Deputy Managing Director of Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK, said: “We are proud that Toyota selected the UK for its first European hybrid production centre and are equally pleased that it is an Auris Hybrid from Burnaston that has taken the company to this landmark total.
Michel Gardel, Vice President of Communication, External and Environmental Affairs at Toyota Motor Europe, said: “We are very proud to deliver our 400,000th hybrid in Europe. It shows that European customers are not only ready to consider a hybrid vehicle purchase but for Toyota, they have been doing so in large numbers – in fact 10 per cent of our sales in Europe were hybrid vehicles last year.”
To date Toyota has sold more than 3.5 million hybrid vehicles worldwide, representing a cumulative saving of more than 23 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. There are more hybrid choices on the way, too - the new 7 seat Prius+, Prius Plug-in Hybrid and Yaris Hybrid are all being introduced later this year at Shelbourne Toyota.
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