Toyota worldwide hybrid sales top 1 million

Hybrid sport-utility vehicles have struggled in sales compared to the Prius, partly because an SUV doesn’t have a green image to start with, analysts say.

Sales of Toyota’s RX400h hybrid SUV, sold as the Harrier in Japan, have reached 85,000 worldwide since it was introduced in 2005. Another hybrid SUV, the Highlander, or Kluger in Japan, has sold 67,000 over the same period.

The Prius, by contrast, has sold 478,800 units since the start of 2005.

Among American automakers, Ford Motor Co. has the hybrid Escape sport-utility vehicle and General Motors Corp. sells the hybrid Saturn Vue Green Line sport-utility vehicle and hybrid trucks.

GM has also promised four new hybrids this year, the two-mode gas-electric systems in the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon large sport utility vehicles, and hybrid systems for the Saturn Aura and new Chevrolet Malibu sedans.

Yasuaki Iwamoto, auto analyst with Okasan Securities Co., said that rivals will have a hard time catching up to Toyota in hybrids — and that the technology will play a key role in defining Toyota in the years ahead.

“Ecological features are going to be very important for building Toyota’s brand image amid intensifying competition, and Toyota will continue to push the hybrid to the forefront,” Iwamoto said.

Toyota has repeatedly stressed that the hybrid holds more potential than the diesel or other innovations.

Iwamoto said it remains unclear what will be the dominant ecological technology in 20 years time, however.

“No one knows what will become the standard, or even if there are going to be several types of technology that will become the standard,” he said.

The next innovation in hybrids is expected to come from a new type of battery, called the lithium-ion battery, which will be smaller and lighter than the nickel-metal hydride batteries Toyota now uses for its hybrids.

A major breakthrough is needed to switch to lithium-ion batteries, now widely used in laptops, to make them power cars.

Mitsuo Kinoshita, a senior Toyota executive, recently denied Japanese media reports that Toyota had given up on having a lithium-ion battery system for the next-generation Prius.

“We’re still working on it,” he told reporters.

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