MANILA, Philippines — Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. plans to bring the Prius hybrid car to the Philippines by June, amid global efforts to come up with ways to limit carbon dioxide emissions, a company official said.

The company “very recently” got the go-ahead from Toyota Motor Corp. in Japan to bring the Prius over, its vice chairman Alfred Ty said.

“That should come very soon, within the year, probably by midyear,” Ty said. “There’s a market for that here, that’s why we’re bringing it here.”

He said the pricing had not yet been finalized, as there were many factors to consider, chiefly the exchange rates of the yen and the US dollar.

Ty said Toyota Motor Philippines sales for the year should be around the same as in 2008, which was 45,915 units, for a market share of 36.9 percent.

“We’ll try to maintain our volume and protect our share of the market. Flat growth is quite good in this kind of market,” he said.

He added that the company would closely watch the trend of shifting to smaller cars. Edited by INQUIRER.net