When the next-generation Toyota Prius hybrid vehicle goes on sale next year, Japan’s biggest and the world’s second largest automaker will up its production numbers by 70 percent, up to a minimum of 480,000, today’s reports say.
Toyota will achieve the significant production hike by moving assembly of the Wish minivan, which is produced alongside the current Prius at the company’s Tsutsumi plant, to another factory in April, says an Automotive News report. The industry publication cites Japan’s Nikkan Kogyo daily for the information.
The recent high gas prices in North America made the Prius in higher demand than usual, with paying customers having to wait months to get their green cars. In 2007, Toyota sold 281,300 Priuses, all it could make. The automaker also said earlier it would produce the Prius in a Mississippi plant in the not-too-distant future.
The move would help Toyota meet its target of selling 1 million or more hybrid vehicles early into the next decade.
The Wish minivan will be produced at the company’s Tahara factory where some RAV4 production will move to a new factory in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.
