Toyota’s smallest and most environmentally friendly hybrid, the Aqua, hit the Japanese market earlier this week. The $22,000 car is 2 feet shorter than its well known cousin the Prius and gets more than 83 miles per gallon. To be named the Prius C when it eventually crosses the Pacific and goes on sale in the U.S., Toyota is expecting to sell 12,000 units per month in the Japanese domestic market according to Main Nichi Shinbun.
The car is manufactured in Iwate prefecture, one of the areas hardest hit by the March 2011 tsunami. Made by Toyota’s subsidiary Kanto Auto Works, President Tetsuo Hattori hopes the Aqua acts as a “small light” in the recovery from the March 11 disaster.
