Report: Toyota Planning to Launch New Hybrid Car Brand in 2009

TOKYO June 24, 2007; The AP reported that Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. plans to begin selling a second dedicated brand of hybrid automobiles in 2009, following up on its market-dominating Prius hybrid, a news report said Sunday.

Japan's No. 1 auto maker plans to sell around 100,000 of the as-yet-unnamed hybrid annually around the world at the outset, the business newspaper The Nikkei said, without indicating the source of its information.

A hybrid switches between a gas engine and electric motor to deliver better mileage and reduce greenhouse emissions.

The vehicle would be Toyota's second hybrid-only brand following the Prius, the newspaper said. Toyota offers several other hybrid models, including hybrid Camry and hybrid Lexus models.

The new vehicle is expected to play a key role in Toyota's plans to increase hybrid sales to 1 million vehicles a year after 2010 in response to efforts to tighten emissions regulations in Japan, the U.S. and Europe, the Nikkei said.

Phones rang unanswered at Toyota on Sunday.

Earlier this month, Toyota said it had sold more than 1 million hybrid vehicles globally since the introduction of the Prius in 1997. The Prius accounted for nearly three-quarters of those sales.