15 Car Designs That Changed The Industry

15. Toyota’s Prius – 1997

In 1995, Toyota debuted a hybrid concept car at the Tokyo Motor Show, with testing following a year later. The first Prius, model NHW10, came out in 1997. The first generation Prius became the world’s first mass-produced gasoline-electric hybrid car. At its introduction in 1997, it won the Car of the Year Japan Award, and in 1998, it won the Automotive Researchers’ and Journalists’ Conference Car of the Year award. Toyota Prius is a full hybrid electric mid-size hatchback, formerly a compact sedan developed and manufactured by Toyota. The California Air Resources Board and the EPA rate the Prius one of the cleanest vehicles sold in the United States based on smog-forming emissions criteria. When it launched in 1997, Prius was available at all four Toyota Japan dealerships, making it the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle. It was introduced worldwide in 2000. The Prius is currently sold in over 70 countries, with its largest markets in Japan and United States. In 2011, Toyota expanded the Prius model to include the “v” style, which is an extended hatchback wagon, and the “c” style, which is a sub-compact hatchback. The Prius plug-in version hybrid was introduced in 2012. By September 2014, Prius design models reached worldwide sales of almost 5 million cars (almost 70 percent of the 7 million hybrids sold worldwide since 1997).

Most notable are:
Prius c – the most fuel -efficient compact car.
Prius liftback – the most fuel-efficient midsize car.
Prius v – the most fuel-efficient midsize station wagon.

The next generation Prius is currently being designed to deliver significantly improved fuel economy in a more compact package that is lighter in weight and lower in cost. These plans are being achieved through the development of a new generation of powertrains with significant advances in battery, electric motor and gasoline engine technologies.