Toyota’s reaches a significant milestone in producing hybrid cars in Europe, as the 400,000th unit delivered to its customer.

The 400,000th hybrid car delivered in Europe is an Auris Hybrid produced in UK. It was handed over to Valentine Nkwocha in Anderlecht (Belgium) as a company car from his employer CTG, an IT-consultancy. The company recently ordered over 20 Auris Hybrid cars to provide them to their junior consultants.

Toyota first began delivering hybrids to the European market back in 2000 with the first-gen Prius. It was also at first, but in recent years Toyota has been enjoying a remarkable boost in sales of hybrid cars. And it’s going to be better in 2012 when the new seven-seater Toyota Prius+ and Prius Plug-in Hybrid join the Prius to make up the Prius Family. The new Yaris will also get a hybrid variant.

Around the world Toyota has sold more than 3.5 million hybrid vehicles, representing a reduction of 23 million tons of CO2.

“We are very proud to deliver our 400,000th hybrid in Europe to a customer in Belgium where we have a strong presence with our European headquarters, our R&D centre, our parts and vehicle logistics operations,” said Michel Gardel, Vice President of Communication, External and Environmental Affairs at Toyota Motor Europe. “It shows that Belgian and European customers are not only ready to consider a hybrid vehicle purchase but for Toyota, they have been doing so in large numbers – in fact 10% of our sales in Europe were hybrid vehicles last year,” he added.