FACTBOX:Sales of hybrid cars in Europe, U.S.

(Repeats for extra customers)

March 2 - Sales of hybrid cars that link an electric motor and batteries to a standard combustion engine as a way to cut fuel consumption and/or increase power are on the rise.

Here are sales data for full hybrid vehicles compiled by the JD Power-LMC market tracking group: YEAR Western Europe United States 2000 n/a 9,350 2001 n/a 19,177 2002 n/a 37,993 2003 n/a 47,524 2004 9,000 86,275 2005 18,000 207,734 2006 40,000 (est) 253,049 Note: n/a means data not available but numbers were low It gave this breakdown of U.S. hybrid sales by model:

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Honda Insight 3,788 5,789 2,216 1,168 583 666 722 Toyota Prius 5,562 13,388 20,119 24,627 53,992 107,897 106,971 Honda Civic Hybrid 15,658 21,729 25,571 25,864 31,251 Ford Escape Hybrid 2,993 15,583 19,375 Honda Accord Hybrid 1,636 16,826 5,598 Lexus RX400h 21,263 20,161 Toyota Highlander Hybrid 17,352 31,485 Mercury Mariner Hybrid 283 3,174 Lexus GS450h 1,784 Toyota Camry Hybrid 31,341 Saturn VUE Green Line (BAS) * 1,187 * estimated