Toyota Motor Corp plans to double its production of hybrid cars to 1 million units in 2011, the major economic daily Nikkei reported Monday. Toyota plans to add about 10 new hybrid models from minivans, subcompacts to luxury cars in the next few years to its existing lineup, Nikkei said. The carmaker also plans to increase the number of production sites capable of assembling hybrid models.

Toyota's 2009 global output of hybrid cars was estimated to be 500,000 units, making up about 8 per cent of its overall production, Nikkei said. Toyota told its parts suppliers recently that it would manufacture about 800,000 hybrids domestically this year, around 900,000 in 2011 and 1.1 million in 2012, the paper reported. The company produces about 90 per cent of its hybrids in Japan.

Copyright Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 2010