Toyota to spike Prius production by 60% by 2009

Contrary to some recent speculation that Toyota might be capacity constrained when it comes to producing producing Priuses. It looks like the onset of an all new third-generation Prius next January (along with a Lexus badged companion) has triggered Toyota to invest in some more capacity at the two Japanese assembly plants that build them. After building 280,000 Priuses in 2007, an increase of thirty-three percent, next year's production should jump another sixty percent. It's not known if those 450,000 units of volume will be dedicated to Prius or if they will also include the new Lexus dedicated hybrid model. Either way it will go a long way toward meeting Toyota's long term goal of producing a million hybrids a year by 2020.

[Source: GreenCarCongress]