Toyota Commemorates Earth Week in the Bay Area by Taking on the Guinness World Records™ for Largest Parade of Hybrid Vehicles

SAN RAMON, Calif., April 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Toyota is celebrating Earth Week this year across the Bay Area with two events honoring the fourth-generation 2016 Prius. The first event, Prius Pick Me Up, will take place April 20-21 and offers commuters free rides to-and-from the East Bay and San Francisco in a 2016 Prius. On April 23, Toyota will be corralling more than 200 Prius and hybrid vehicles to break the Guinness World Records for the most number of hybrids in a parade. The events are a nod to Toyota's leadership in the hybrid space – Toyota (and Lexus) have double the hybrids on the roads than any other auto manufacturer.

The Bay Area is known for its highly dense Prius population with more than 217,000 Prius vehicles sold in the Bay Area since 2001. Overall, California has a long and devoted history with Prius as the golden state accounts for 40 percent of the nation's Prius vehicles.

"The Bay Area is home to hundreds of thousands of proud Prius owners, and we wanted to pay homage to the Prius this Earth Day," said Pete Carey, vice president and general manager for Toyota Motor Sales. "We want to celebrate this revolutionary vehicle and the folks behind the wheel who've always been our early-adopters, thinking bigger about their carbon footprint and environmental impact."

To kick off Toyota's Earth Day events, Toyota will be offering free rides in a casual carpool pickup in the 2016 Prius to commuters from four different East Bay locations in Berkeley and Oakland to downtown San Francisco. Casual carpool pickups will take place during commuting times between 5 a.m. – 10 a.m. and in the evening between 3 p.m. – 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 20 and Thursday, April 21. Toyota Product Specialists will be inside each vehicle to educate passengers about the all-new design, style and safety technology in the 2016 Prius. Riders will receive a $500 credit towards the purchase of the new 2016 Prius.¹

Anyone with a Prius is invited to participate in an exclusive Prius Parade to break the Guinness World Records for the most number of hybrids in a parade with 209 Prius vehicles or more taking to the road at the Alameda Air Field on Saturday, April 23. The Prius Parade will encompass family friendly entertainment, such as games, tours of the USS Hornet, and a race course test drive with professional drivers in the 2016 Prius – all at no cost. Attendees will also have a chance to win a grand prize of a brand new 2016 Prius among other prizes, including a suite for 16 at AT&T Park for a Giants game, and 1,000 tickets to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.² Every Prius participant will receive a $500 credit towards the purchase of a new 2016 Prius.¹

Making its California debut after being unveiled at the New York International Auto Show last month, the 2017 Prius Prime will be on display. Prius Prime is the newest member to the Prius family and Toyota's newest plug-in hybrid vehicle. The vehicle runs off an 8.8-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack and estimates to get 120 MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent), making it Toyota's most efficient hybrid.

For more information about Toyota's Prius Parade, visit www.priusparade.com.

Terms and Conditions
¹ Casual Carpool & Prius Parade - $500 Bonus Cash offer is available with the purchase of any new Toyota 2016 Prius with the submission of an authorized Prius Ride and Drive $500 Bonus Cash voucher.  One redemption per voucher ID number, per contract.  Bonus Cash voucher is subject to a verification process and is to be submitted to the dealership at the end of the negotiation process.  The participating Toyota dealership will submit the voucher for verification and reimbursement.  Must take delivery by 9:00 pm PST, May 31, 2016.

² Prius Parade – For terms and conditions to win the grand prize of a brand new 2016 Prius visit, www.priusparade.com.

About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM), the world's top automaker and creator of the Prius and the Mirai fuel cell vehicle, is committed to building vehicles for the way people live through our Toyota, Lexus and Scion brands. Over the past 50 years, we've built more than 30 million cars and trucks in North America, where we operate 14 manufacturing plants (10 in the U.S.) and directly employ more than 42,000 people (more than 33,000 in the U.S.). Toyota operates 1,800 North American dealerships (1,500 in the U.S. alone which sold almost 2.5 million cars and trucks in 2015) – and about 80 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 20 years are still on the road today.

Toyota partners with philanthropic organizations across the country, with a focus on education, safety, and the environment. As part of this commitment, we share the company's extensive know-how garnered from building great cars and trucks to help community organizations and other nonprofits expand their ability to do good. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.

SOURCE Toyota