BLAME IT ON BILL
Don Sherman
In 1993, during the Clinton administration, the federal government and U.S. automakers signed what amounted to a peace treaty. In exchange for reduced regulatory pressure and federal resources, the car companies agreed to more vigorously pursue advanced fuel-saving technologies. This agreement, called a Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, set a goal of producing 80-mpg concepts by 1999, followed by production-feasible prototypes by 2004.
The big surprise was Toyota's request to join the party. When that appeal was denied, chairman Eiji Toyoda encouraged the creation of a task force in Japan called G21 - a global car for the twenty-first century. Toyota's engineering vice president, Akihiro Wada, set a target of doubling small-car fuel efficiency and assigned engineer Takeshi Uchiyamada the task of preparing a credible concept car for the 1995 Tokyo Motor Show.
Uchiyamada's team proposed more than eighty technologies as a means of achieving G21 goals, with inspiration drawn from research both inside and outside Toyota. The twenty best ideas were narrowed to the top four concepts. What was initially called the Toyota Hybrid System (THS) was selected in June 1995. The first Prius ran in December shortly after the Tokyo show closed.
THS is identical in concept to a powertrain TRW engineers patented in 1970. The name Synergy (as in Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive) was an outgrowth of a joint GM/Toyota research effort begun in 1999 to study fuel cells, electric propulsion, and hybrid systems. When Toyota asked to use the name for production models, GM magnanimously granted permission to do so.