TOKYO (The Sunday Times) -- Toyota plans to quadruple its production of fuel-saving hybrid cars and may launch a separate Prius brand.

Katsuaki Watanabe, Toyota’s president, said the firm planned to make 1 million hybrid cars a year within a few years.
This year it is on track to sell about 250,000, of which 40,000 will be in Europe.
Watanabe said he would not comment on suggestions that the company would create a separate “green” brand of cars under the Prius name, in much the same way it had launched Lexus to tackle the luxury market.
“We are right in the middle of developing all that,” he said.
Toyota is this year expected to overtake General Motors as the world’s biggest carmaker, with forecast sales of 9.34 million vehicles.
The Prius, a mid-sized hatchback, is the best known hybrid vehicle, although Toyota also makes hybrid versions of other models, including upmarket Lexus cars.
Hybrids save fuel and cut carbon-dioxide emissions by combining battery power with a petrol engine.
The company is well advanced with a “plug-in” hybrid vehicle with a larger battery recharged from a domestic power point.
It will run for at least six miles at up to 62 meters per hour on battery power alone. Toyota executives said that if it was charged overnight it could cut fuel bills by more than 40 percent.
Meanwhile, Toyota has pledged to stay in Formula One despite its dismal record of more than 100 races without a win.