Toyota’s Prius hybrid has broken the Japanese sales record for a single car model in 2010, helped by a popular government subsidy for green vehicles, an industry group said on Tuesday.
The world’s biggest car manufacturer sold 315669 units of the Prius in Japan last year, up by 51.1% from the previous year, according to the Japanese Automobile Dealers Association.
The Prius broke a 1990 sales record of 300008 in a single year set by Toyota’s popular Corolla to take its second consecutive annual crown, the association said.
Honda’s Fit was second on the list with sales of 185439 units, up by 17.7%, followed by Toyota’s Vitz, whose sales came to 122248, up by 3.9%, the association said.
The association had earlier said Japan’s new vehicle sales last year marked the first annual gain in seven years due to a subsidy designed to encourage motorists to buy eco-friendly cars. The Prius’s popularity in Japan has continued despite Toyota recalling hundreds of thousands of units to repair a flaw in the braking system, as part of around 10million recalls worldwide. – AFP
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