Gas Turbine Hybrid Cars (S800/Century) In the 1970s, Toyota announced the gas turbine hybrid cars (S800/Century), based on a combination of gas turbine engine and electric motors, as one of our solutions to address the urban environmental issue of exhaust gas emissions. We also began our research into electric vehicles at the same time. Their in-house electric motor development program had begun in the 1980s. Thus the technologies necessary in releasing a mass production hybrid vehicle later were accumulated over the many years.

In the 1990s, reduction of CO2, identified as one of the causes for global warming, became a global issue in addition to the issues of exhaust gas emissions. At the same time, the opinion that it would be rather difficult to consider using batteries as a key component of the main powertrain in future vehicles due to problems related to the self-weight and other restrictions became dominant among automotive engineers in the 1990s. This prompted Toyota to seriously consider the possibilities offered by various types of hybrid systems and focused our research and development efforts to realize mass production hybrid vehicles that can be offered to the society at large.

1st generation Prius The 1st generation Prius was released to the market in 1997. This was the world's first mass produced hybrid passenger car that provided the basic convenience that automobiles intrinsically offers and outstanding environmental performance at a low price, affordable to many people. The 1st generation Prius was developed as one solution from Toyota that addressed the issues of improving urban environmental conditions by reducing emissions and improve the global environmental conditions by reducing the amount of CO2 emission.

The 1st generation Prius focused on ecology as the utmost priority. Based on the lessons learned from that experience, the next generation was developed featuring HYBRID SYNERGY DRIVE, to provide enhancements to "The Joy of Driving " quality, which is what attracts people to automobiles intrinsically.

Toyota will continue our efforts to develop innovative future generation powertrains in pursuit of manufacturing cars with world's leading environmental performance, in which our customers can enjoy a comfortable driving experience.

Gas Turbine Hybrid Cars (S800/Century)

In the 1970s, Toyota announced our gas turbine hybrid cars (S800/Century), based on a combination of gas turbine engine and electric motors, as one of our solutions to address the urban environmental issue of exhaust gas emissions. We also began our research into electric vehicles at the same time. Our in-house electric motor development programme had begun in the 1980s. Thus the technologies necessary in releasing a mass production hybrid vehicle later were accumulated over the many years.

In the 1990s, reduction of CO2, identified as one of the causes for global warming, became a global issue in addition to the issues of exhaust gas emissions. At the same time, the opinion that it would be rather difficult to consider using batteries as a key component of the main powertrain in future vehicles due to problems related to the self-weight and other restrictions became dominant among automotive engineers in the 1990s. This prompted Toyota to seriously consider the possibilities offered by various types of hybrid systems and focused our research and development efforts to realize mass production hybrid vehicles that can be offered to the society at large.

1st Generation Prius

And the 1st generation Prius was released to the market in 1997. This was the world's first mass produced hybrid passenger car that provided the basic convenience that automobiles intrinsically offers and outstanding environmental performance at a low price, affordable to many people. The 1st generation Prius was developed as one solution from Toyota that addressed the issues of improving urban environmental conditions by reducing emissions and improve the global environmental conditions by reducing the amount of CO2 emission.

The first generation Prius focused on ecology as the utmost priority. Based on the lessons learned from that experience, the next generation was developed featuring HYBRID SYNERGY DRIVE, to provide enhancements to "The Joy of Driving " quality, which is what attracts people to automobiles intrinsically.