Report: Toyota will double hybrid output to one million a year in 2011

Toyota is justifiably proud of its success with hybrid vehicles. It topped two million total hybrid sales in September and the Prius was the best-selling vehicle in Japan last year. In late 2009, the hybrid-only Sai model went on sale Japan. Finally, in Detroit last week, the company unveiled the FT-CH, a smaller, cheaper version of the Prius that might make it to production. The company is going to need some new hybrid models in the lineup (they've announced a plan to introduce around ten in the coming years) because Toyota wants to make a million hybrids a year starting in 2011, the Nikkei Business is reporting.

Toyota has talked about the million-hybrids-per-year target for a while, but the 2011 start date is much earlier than anticipated. In September, Toyota said it would try to reach that level "as early as possible in the 2010s." 2011 is pretty early, no?

[Source: Reuters]