The Toyota Prius is a fully hybrid electric automobile developed and manufactured by Toyota since 1997. Initially offered as a 4-door sedan, it has been produced only as a 5-door hatchback sedan version since 2003.
In 2007, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) ranked the Prius among the cleanest vehicles sold in the United States, based on smog-forming emissions. The 2018 model year Prius Eco ranked the second most fuel-efficient gasoline car without plug-in capability available in the United States that year, after the Hyundai Ioniq Blue hybrid.
The Prius first went on sale in Japan and other countries in 1997 and was available at all four Toyota Japanese dealer chains, making it the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle. It was then introduced worldwide in 2000. Toyota sells the Prius in more than 90 markets, Japan and the United States being its largest markets. Cumulative overall sales of the Prius liftback reached the 1 million vehicle mark in May 2008, 2 million in September 2010, and exceeded 3 million in June 2013. Cumulative sales of one million were achieved in the United States in early April 2011 and Japan hit the one million mark in August 2011. In January 2017, the Prius liftback was the best-selling hybrid car in the world with nearly 4 million units sold.
In 2011, Toyota expanded the Prius family to include the Prius v, a stretch sedan, and the Prius c, a subcompact sedan. The production version of the plug-in hybrid Prius was launched in 2012. The second generation of the plug-in variant, the Prius Prime, was launched in the United States in November 2016. The Prime has reached the equivalency rating of miles per gallon (MPGe) in all-electric mode of any vehicle rated by the EPA with an internal combustion engine. Worldwide sales of the Prius c variant crossed the million mark during the first half of 2015. The Prius family totaled cumulative worldwide sales of 6.1 million units in January 2017, or 61% of the 10 million hybrids sold worldwide by Toyota since 1997.
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