Toyota Europe Announces It’s 1 millionth Hybrid Produced in France as Part of Earth Day Tweet

Europe loves small economical cars that function at the bare minimum and get good gas mileage. Cars like the original Mini Cooper, VW Golf, and small Hondas. In the beginning, it was regular petrol-powered cars that were nothing but a small engine and a transmission. Then in the early 2000s, automakers started to realize that the future of economical cars is going to be electrified, A.K.A, hybrids.

The first and best automaker to do this was and is Toyota. With the release of the Prius in October of 1997. Today, Toyota is celebrating 1 million Toyotas being produced in France alone. We recently wrote an article about Toyota’s worldwide hybrid sales which reached 20 million a few months ago.

The Toyota Motor Manufacturing Plant in Onnaing, France produces cars like the Yaris hybrid and many others. As a matter of fact, the 1 millionth hybrid to roll off that assembly line was in fact a Yaris hybrid which will be delivered to its customer soon.

According to an article published by One Toyota, “With 29,856 vehicles produced in the first year, the hybrid technology quickly conquered the European market. In 2012, 15% of the production was dedicated to hybrid models, increasing to 50% in 2018.”

These are pretty good numbers. Akio Toyoda, Toyota Motors CEO said that he was indeed against completely changing Toyota’s lineup of vehicles to be all EVs. Many cars that are not available in the U.S may not ever see an EV version. We also wrote an article about this in which we went in-depth into the statement made by the CEO in a welcoming ceremony for new employees.

Toyota seems to be going in the right direction by first making a lot of popular cars hybrids and plug-in hybrids and also bringing back the manual in a lot of cars. Speaking of which, check out my previous article about adding some new features that people wanted to manual Toyotas.

As Toyota starts to ramp up their EV and Hybrid production, they will easily come out as a founding father and authority in the EV and hybrid market, which they already have accomplished in the hybrid market.

Right now, the economical car market is an untapped oil well that has a concrete cover over it and automakers are rushing to drink it up. People are now starting to realize that gas-guzzling SUVs and pickups are not the way to go, especially for your wallet with today’s gas prices. GMC’s Hummer EV and Ford’s Mustang Mach-E bring new light to a market that needs to be sufficed. Hopefully, Toyota’s EVs and hybrids will also catch the eye of prospective buyers, and sooner we will start seeing more Toyota EVs and plug-ins rolling down our streets.

Also, check out my recent article on how the Toyota warranty works in relation to mods on the RAV4 Hybrid.

What do you think? Should Toyota go EV or stay hybrid or diverse? Let us know in the comments below.

Harutiun Hareyan is reporting Toyota news at Torque News. His automotive interests and vast experience test-riding new cars give his stories a sense of authenticity and unique insights. Follow Harutiun on Twitter at @HareyanHarutiun for daily Toyota news.