The 2010 Toyota Prius is selling well, very well. In fact July of this year saw almost four time as many Prius Hybrids sold in Japan than July of 2008. In the first seven months of 2009, Toyota has sold almost 80,000 Prius Hybrids. Clearly the hybrid vehicle has arrived, but the question now is, can these sorts of sales be sustained by Toyota.

While maintaining consumer demand is one thing, acquiring enough nickel-metal hydride batteries from supplier Panasonic EV Energy Co. Currently, Toyota is receiving enough batteries to produce around a half million Prius Hybrids, but that’s not looking like it will meet up with demand.

According to Toyota senior managing director, Takahiko Ijichi, “The new Prius model has been excessively popular, inconveniencing some of our customers, and the factories are working overtime at full capacity.” Yet plans to open a new Toyota plant in Tupelo, Mississippi are still on hold because of the limited battery supply.

According to Panasonic, their production of nickel-metal hydride batteries is increasing and is expected to get up to one million units by this time next year.

A sign of things to come and the direction of the automotive industry, Sanyo, one of the largest producers of nickel hydride batteries used in hybrid vehicle production, is boosting their production levels by 75 percent.

The bulk of Sanyo’s hybrid vehicle batteries are currently being sold to Honda and Ford and to lesser degree Audi and VW for upcoming hybrid lines.

This is particularly big news for Ford which has had a bottle neck in it’s hybrid production levels due to lack of components like batteries. As Ford starts to focus on smaller more eco-friendly vehicles like the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid (pictured above), it will definitely be looking to acquire more batteries.

Sanyo will crank its hybrid battery production up from 2.5 million per month to 3.5 million. It has not yet been announced which companies will get how many of the new Sanyo batteries.