Toyota’s Corolla will achieve a major milestone as the world’s most popular car celebrates its 50th anniversary.

Introduced to Japan in October 1966 as the “people’s car”, cumulative global sales of Corolla have grown to more than 44 million.

The global sales tally equates to approximately 100 cars being built and sold every hour throughout the past half a century, or one every 36 seconds.

Australia has featured prominently in Corolla’s history since local sales began in 1967 – the destination for the first Corolla exports, the site of the first factory outside Japan to build this popular model, and the scene of its earliest international motorsport success at Bathurst.

Corolla has been Australia’s best-selling car in each of the past three years and cumulative local sales have now reached more than 1.35 million cars.

Corolla, which became the world’s best-selling automotive nameplate in 1997, accounts for one in five vehicles sold in Toyota’s 79-year history and a slightly higher proportion in Australia.

Currently produced at 16 plants worldwide, more than one million units have been sold each year since 2002. LIn 2015, a total of 3,670 Corollas were sold every day across more than 150 countries and regions.

Toyota Australia’s executive director sales and marketing Tony Cramb said local motorists had made Corolla the company’s top-selling model in this country.

“Australians have always loved Corolla because it has continually captured their imagination by being affordable, fuel-efficient, dependable and fun to drive through each of its 11 generations,” Mr Cramb said.

One month after Corolla’s debut, the first export shipment of 15 cars left Japan bound for Australia in November 1966 and went on sale here the following year.

From 1968 until 1999, more than 666,000 Corolla cars were built in Toyota factories at Port Melbourne, Dandenong and Altona in Melbourne.

Corolla has a long and successful motorsport record in Australia, helping to forge the car’s reputation as durable, reliable and fun to drive.

Class victories at the Bathurst 500 enduro in 1968 and 1969 effectively put Corolla on the motorsport map. It won a further eight consecutive class victories at Bathurst from 1985-92 and compiled a string of touring-car victories and success in rallying.

Corolla’s sales have grown from strength to strength in Australia. It took more than eight years for the first 100,000 Corollas to be sold after its introduction in 1967. The most recent 100,000 sales took just over two years and four months.

Annual sales reached 20,000 for the first time in 1975, climbed through the 30,000 mark in 2000 and topped the 40,000 milestone in 2005.

Corolla became a “millionaire” in Australia in September 2007 with total sales moving into seven figures four months after the model’s 40th anniversary in Australia.

Originating from the Latin term for “crown of flowers”, the name Corolla was chosen in the hope the vehicle would bloom in the automotive market. And that’s exactly what it did: within three years the first-generation Corolla became the top-selling vehicle in Japan, and sales quickly spread around the world.

In-depth analysis and the incorporation of customer feedback have been integral to the development of each new generation of Corolla. As a result, Toyota has built on the philosophy behind the creation of the first Corolla – a car of superior quality, durability and reliability (QDR) – with a determination to exceed customer expectations in every key area highlighted by their feedback.

The result is that today’s Corolla hatch and sedan inherit 50 years of Corolla DNA in always evolving and being designed to meet the diverse needs of a global customer base. They feature prestigious exterior designs, a strong focus on sensory quality, roomy interiors and high levels of technology and safety equipment.

Above all, Corolla continues to build on the model’s legendary QDR with significantly enhanced quality in every aspect of its design and engineering, while continuing to represent impressive value for money.

The 50-year history of the ever-evolving Corolla, filled with examples of technology and quality improvement, is emblematic of Toyota’s continued efforts to anticipate customer needs and build ever-better cars.