Most industry milestones make for pretty weak news events. Like when Toyota passes General Motors in global sales, or when trucks became more than half the U.S. car market, they are simply small reminders of some greater change that was barreling down the freeway for years, BusinessWeek.com reports.
But look a little deeper and there are some other numbers that show the real significance of the Prius. Almost 60% of those sales are in North America. The car has sold in nearly twice the volume here that it did in Japan, where Toyota really is king and gasoline is even more expensive. What’s more telling is that Prius sales in the U.S. are up 21% this year and were up 70% last year to 181,000 cars. That’s more than Ford sells of its Fusion, which is a pretty nice family sedan. At the same time Camry hybrid sales are up 36% this year.
