Toyota Predicts a Hybrid Majority

“When the question of the future of hybrids first came up…I’d felt quite bold in saying that Toyota cars will be 30% hybrid by 2020,” former chief engineer and current vice chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada told reporters at a briefing in Tokyo on Wednesday.

But now Toyota appears to be well on its way to that goal, and Mr. Uchiyamada is bolder. The company announced Wednesday it sold its 5 millionth hybrid car. Last year, 40% of the cars Toyota sold in Japan and 14% globally were hybrids.

“In eco-conscious countries, I believe that hybrid cars will become the majority,” Mr. Uchiyamada said, in a new prediction Wednesday. “I’d never really used the term ‘majority’ before, but I think it will go that way”.

Mr. Uchiyamada’s statements come after Toyota hybrid models Prius and Aqua grabbed the Nos. 1 and 2 spots, respectively, in fiscal 2012 sales by model in Japan, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.

But hybrid cars still have a long way to go abroad. In the U.S., the market share of all hybrid vehicles was around 2.1% in 2011, according to market research from Baum and Associates and Hybridcars.com. In a 27-country average in Europe, the share of gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles didn’t even reach 1% in the same year.