 New hybrid car sales jumped from 94,259 in 2008 to 334,000 in 2009, and hybrid sales in 2009 represented around 10% of new vehicles sales in Japan.In contrast, the U.S. market share was 2.8% for the same year.These record sales allowed Japan to surpass the U.S. in total new hybrid sales, with the Japanese market representing almost half (48%) of the worldwide hybrid sales in 2009 while the U.S. market represented 42% of global sales.