A Tokyo newspaper has reported that Toyota and GM are talking about producing Prius hybrid cars in the United States but Toyota said nothing has been decided.

Toyota and GM are talking about producing the Prius at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., their joint venture's factory in California, the Tokyo Shimbun reported Friday.

Toyota's Buffalo plant currently supplies the California factory with 4-cylinder engines used in Toyota's Matrix and GM's Pontiac Vibe vehicles. The engines are trucked from Buffalo to Chicago and shipped by train to California.

An industry observer said, "It would make sense, then, that West Virginia could provide hybrid engines to that same plant. The logistics already exist, obviously."

Toyota spokesman Victor Vanov said Friday, "Doing something like this, we always consider what would be the optimum structure for our production efforts in North America. That goes along with vehicles that sell very well. But at this time nothing has been decided."

The Tokyo Shimbun said Toyota is considering exporting the main components of the Prius from Japan and assembling the vehicles at the California factory.

The four-seat Prius went on sale in the United States in 2000. Toyota has sold more than 1.46 million hybrids worldwide, including more than one million Prius hybrids, during the past 10 years. The company has said it plans to increase its annual global sales of hybrid vehicles to 1 million in the 2010s.

Toyota's Buffalo plant, which has 1,400 employees, has expanded five times since it opened 11 years ago. The plant manufactures 4-cylinder and V6 engines and is the only Toyota plant in North America that makes transmissions.

The plant has about 236 acres available for expansion.

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