Toyota’s Hybrids Make A Difference – A Big Difference

Imagine a container that is two storeys (six metres) high and one metre wide that stretches almost 60 times around the equator.

That’s the size of the container you would need to capture the amount of carbon dioxide saved from the atmosphere by people who have driven Toyota’s petrol-electric hybrid vehicles.

The ‘saving’ is calculated based upon the amount of CO2 that would have been emitted by petrol-powered vehicles of similar size and driving performance.

Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) in Japan says its global sales of hybrids, including Prius and Hybrid Camry, have totalled 2.68 million.

TMC has calculated that these vehicles have led to approximately 15 million fewer tons of carbon-dioxide emissions (13.61 million tonnes) being emitted.

Measured at sea level, that quantity of CO2 equates to more than 7.28 billion cubic metres of gases.

Rather than imagining a massive equatorial container, that amount of CO2 would fill the 1.7 million cubic metres of the Melbourne Cricket Ground at least 4,285 times. That’s once a week for more than 82 years.

Alternatively, it would blanket 90 per cent of NSW to a depth of one centimetre – or envelop both Victoria and Tasmania with a 2.2cm covering.

TMC says its data is based on calculating the number of registered vehicles multiplied by (“x”) distance travelled x the official fuel-efficiency rating in each country or region x CO2 conversion factor.

Toyota has been selling hybrid vehicles since 1997 and last year sold more than 500,000 in a single year for the first time.

Prius is Toyota’s and the world’s best-selling hybrid with cumulative sales fast approaching two million, including more than 15,000 in Australia.

In Japan, where Toyota has sold more than one million hybrids, Prius has been the country’s best-selling car for 15 consecutive months – including selling almost 35,000 in July.

Hybrid Camry is the world’s next most-popular hybrid vehicle with total sales of more than 190,000.

TMC has repeatedly described its Hybrid Synergy Drive system as a core technology to help address issues such as dwindling oil reserves, global warming and air pollution.

It has said it hopes to lift its annual hybrid sales to more than one million during the next 10 years. It wants to offer a hybrid for every model in its line-up in the 2020s.

Toyota is also working to develop electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles.