F O C U S 5 Photos: Cover, images on page 3, 5, 8, 9 - © Toyota Motor Corporation; images on page 4, 7 - © AVL/Gerhard Langusch ‹F.›: Do you think that the Toyota Prius will have a significant impact on powertrain development in general, and at Toyota in particular? ‹G.K.›: In my opinion, the Toyota Prius has changed the world of powertrains fundamentally. The launch of the first Prius back in 1997 – and with it the Prius concept – generated a lot of excitement, both in terms of its technology and its fuel economy. The further development in the second Prius with the introduction of high voltage, where we switched to higher voltage levels in the battery pack, was yet another major contribution to the Toyota hybrid’s success. In this respect, the Prius is a pioneering breakthrough, and as such has changed the world of drive systems in all Toyota and Lexus models, that’s for sure. Nowadays, you’ll also find the hybrid powertrain in lower priced models, such as the Toyota Yaris, or even in luxury products like the Lexus LS 600h – so, obviously, the innovative hybrid drive ultimately covers the entire bandwidth of Toyota and Lexus models. If you take a look at the competitors, you’ll notice that there’s a whole lot happening there too: With some vehicle manufacturers, the trend toward hybridization is strong, with others perhaps weaker, but none the less existent. From our point of view, the hybridization path we chose is certainly the right one. Of course we’re delighted that other OEMs picked up on this trend too, but, at the same time, we’ll be making sure to stay one step ahead in this area. ‹F.›: Will the Toyota Prius someday become an all-electric vehicle and if so, when do you think that will be? > The new Toyota Prius is built on a new platform, the TNGA – Toyota New Global Architecture.
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