. Toyota Billboard Marks 100 Million Gallons
of Gas Saved by Driving Hybrids
Photo: Toyota
TORRANCE, Calif. -
While most of America was fueling up with turkey and fixings over
the holiday weekend, a Toyota billboard marked a significant milestone
in reducing fuel consumption.
The billboard, located
beside the 405 Freeway in El Segundo, Calif., is similar to an odometer
and clicks forward every four seconds to estimate the number of
gallons of gas saved by Toyota and Lexus hybrid vehicles in the
United States since the first Toyota Prius went on sale in 2000.
On Friday, November 25, the billboard clicked over to 100,000,000
gallons saved ... and is still counting.
"Every hybrid owner
who passes a gas station knows they are using less fuel, but to
look at that figure in total is truly impressive," said Toyota Vice
President of Marketing Jim Farley. "The purpose of the billboard
is to visually capture one of the most significant benefits of driving
a vehicle with Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive."
Other environmental
benefits of the more than 250,000 Toyota and Lexus hybrids
that have logged more than 5 billion miles include:
Avoiding
nearly 900,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted
into the atmosphere
Allowing
the savings of 4 million barrels of crude oil
Avoiding
more than 3 million pounds of smog-forming gases
Currently, there are three
hybrid offerings from Toyota and Lexus, all of which are at least 80 percent
cleaner for smog-forming emissions than the average vehicle. The Prius is
the world's best-selling hybrid while the Highlander Hybrid and RX 400h
luxury hybrid SUV are the two best-selling hybrid SUVs. Both SUVs offer
V8-like performance with fuel mileage comparable to 4-cylinder cars.
Next year, Lexus will introduce
the GS 450h hybrid luxury sedan and Toyota will make a hybrid powertrain
available in America's most popular sedan, the Camry.
Worldwide, Toyota has sold
more than 500,000 hybrids since 1997 and hopes to increase that number to
a million hybrids a year by the early 2010s. To achieve that goal, Toyota
plans to halve the cost of hybrid powertrains as early as possible.
