Toyota expects a 40 percent jump in global sales of gas-electric hybrids for 2007, for a projected total of 430,000 hybrid vehicles sold worldwide. The 312,500 hybrids sold in 2006 represented a 33 percent increase over the year before. Toyota aims to sell 280,000 hybrid vehicles domestically in 2007, also a 40 percent increase over 2006.
Currently, about 1 percent of new cars sold in the U.S. are gas-electric hybrids.
While Toyota now occupies an enviable position in the global automotive marketplace, the company is scrambling to add worldwide production capacity, staunch a troubling flow of recalls, and catch up in areas such as clean diesel that present a competitive threat to Toyota's gas-electric hybrid technology.
