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20 Years After Launch, Toyota Prius Is Still King of the Hybrid Hill

Previewed by a concept in 1995, the first-generation Prius went on sale in Japan at the end of 1997. That’s two decades since Toyota set the course for automotive hybridization, and to this day, the Prius remains the best-selling hybrid vehicle ever. It all started in ‘93, with the inception of the G21 Project.
Toyota Prius Concept 11 photos
Photo: Toyota
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In the early 1990s, Toyota held internal discussions over a vehicle for the 21st century that would achieve groundbreaking fuel efficiency. In fact, G21 Project head honcho Takeshi Uchiyamada set a target of raising efficiency performance to 1.5 times the level of conventional engines. It wouldn’t be until the autumn of ‘94 when Toyota decided to augment internal combustion with hybrid bits and bobs, thus leading to the creation of the Toyota Hybrid System.

Were it not for the Toyota Sports 800 Gas Turbine Hybrid, the first-generation Prius wouldn’t have happened. Believe it or not, the indirect predecessor of the world’s most popular hybrid has a forerunner of its own in the form of the Century Gas Turbine Hybrid. Shown to the public at the 1975 Tokyo Motor Show, the one-off study combined a gas turbine connected to an electrical generator, a pair of electric motors for each front wheel, and 20 12-volt batteries.

Since the first Prius rolled off the assembly line in 1997, Toyota managed to pass the 10-million hybrid vehicles milestone at the beginning of 2017. Not only is this arguably the most fitting way to celebrate the Japanese automaker’s decades-long bet on hybridization, but the Prius Plug-In Hybrid has been crowned the world’s best-selling plug-in hybrid vehicle only recently.

The volume of gasoline saved by Toyota hybrids in this 20-year period translates to 1.5 million roundtrips around the earth and the moon. On the subject of CO2, savings are estimated at 77 million tons of carbon dioxide, enough for 15.4 trillion fizzy drinks or to fill the Empire State Building 40,788 times.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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