According to Toyota, the latest member of its family is off to a very good start. The new Prius C, the newest of the Prius family of hybrids was on sale from March 12. After the roomy Prius V sold about 8,400 units in the first ten weeks in the U.S, the smaller and cheaper 2012 Toyota Prius C is also getting a lot of attention. The Prius C is a five-door hatchback and is much more efficient.Toyota revealed that the C sold 1,201 units in just the first three days that it was on sale making it the fastest selling model of the brand.

According to the car maker, the Prius C is “one of Toyota’s fastest selling vehicles”. Toyota also pointed out that the sales in those three days exceeded both the Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt sales of the whole of last month. So far the newly expanded Prius family (the Toyota C, Prius C, Prius V and new Plug-In Hybrid Prius) sold a total of 9,821 units in the U.S through the first half of March.Toyota obtained 120,000 orders for Prius C in the first five days it was on sale in Japan. But the number of units that were actually sold is not clear yet.

“A number of factors drive the auto market, and the fuel price is one of them,” said Bob Carter, group vice president and general manager of the Toyota Division. “With 53 miles-per-gallon in the city and priced under $19,000, the timing for Prius c couldn’t be better.” Last month Prius sales totaled 20,593 and 32,593 year-to-date. The Prius is certainly doing well this year. Last year in the U.S, Toyota sold 136,463 models of its third-generation Prius Liftback and expects to sell 220,000 Prius models of all types in 2012.

via EgmCarTech