hybrid Prius

Toyota Prius concept model displayed for the first time at the 1995 Tokyo Motor Show.Third-generation Prius launched in 2009.
when the term "hybrid" was not yet in common use, that Toyota launched a project to investigate what type of vehicles would be best for the twenty-first century. The scope of research was expanded to include areas such as ease of boarding and exiting, body size, design, and fuel efficiency, as well as twenty-first century themes including societal issues; and a process of reviewing from the very beginning what a vehicle is and its manufacturing processes was repeatedly carried out.
The hybrid system was truly the antithesis of an era that valued only engine displacement, vehicle size, and luxurious features. The hybrid system presented to the planet and the people who inhabit it the completely new value of "amenability that takes the environment into consideration."
The precise symbol of this approach is the Prius. True to its name, which is derived from the Latin that means "to go before," the Prius features numerous state-of-the-art technologies and achieves vastly superior fuel efficiency.
The system marked the birth of a groundbreaking new category--the first of its kind in the world--and this ushered in the new era of the hybrid vehicle.