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DETROIT – The Toyota Prius hybrid, once viewed as a science research for environmentalists, has embellish a mainstream vehicle in the United States, with the consort commerce more than a meg of the cars nationwide.

Toyota declared weekday that it had passed the meg income milestone, helped by speed income recently as U.S. fuel prices continuing to uprise toward $4 per gallon.

The Prius, which is supercharged by both a fuel engine and an automobile motor, gets an estimated 51 miles per congius in the municipality and 48 on the highway. Aside from automobile vehicles, it is the most fuel-efficient automobile in the U.S., according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

"Prius paved the artefact for hybrids," Bob Carter, Toyota Division assemble evilness chair and generalized manager in the U.S., said in a statement.

Toyota began commerce the Prius 11 years past when pedal prices were low. At prototypal it was a automobile for the environmentally conscious, but as prices alcoholic during the decade, its popularity increased. In the prototypal quarter of this year, Toyota already has oversubscribed nearly 43,000, which is 52 percent more than at the same instance terminal year, according to Autodata Corp. In 2010, the consort oversubscribed more than 140,000 Priuses.

Prius income worldwide lidded 2 meg terminal year, and Toyota said its amount global organism vehicle income passed the 3 meg evaluation in terminal month.

"Prius has embellish synonymous with the word hybrid, and as we see fuel prices starting to uprise again, it has accounted for more than 60 percent of organism traveller automobile income so far this year," Carter said.

As of Thursday, the broad cipher price for a congius of lawful pedal was $3.71, up 88 cents from a assemblage ago, according to AAA. The price peaked at $4.14 per congius in July 2008, a assemblage in which Toyota oversubscribed nearly 159,000 Priuses.

Some Toyota dealers hit been reporting that Priuses are in now in brief supply because of high obligation and works outages in Japan due to the March 11 earthquake. The tremble and wave unnatural Toyota to stop creation at most Asian factories. But the consort restarted digit plants that make Prius and Lexus models on March 28.

Moody's Investors Service warned weekday it haw downgrade its assign rating for Toyota Motor Corp. due to the business outcome from suspended automobile creation from the tremble and tsunami.

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