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07-03-2016, 03:40 PM
An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:
Last week I posted an article about this car - the Toyota Prius, because a new version was being launched. Well, here is another article, more about how the Prius came to be so successful. I suppose the greening mindset of the public has a lot to do with it. Can't be the price of gasoline. Gas is very affordable (thanks to technology, and more markets in its by products). The green competition will come to a duel between electric motor and hydrogen fuel-cell, of which Toyota has got both ends covered. The Prius (for the electric-gasoline hybrid) and the Mirai (for the hydrogen fuel-cell) Ladies and gentlemen, we will soon see the demise of the internal-combustion engine - good riddance, it was fun while it lasted!
Cheers!
http://driving.ca/toyota/prius/auto-...y-of-the-prius (http://driving.ca/toyota/prius/auto-news/news/the-history-of-the-prius)
How the Toyota Prius took over the world
closer look at the history of a car that started a whole new segment, with a little help from Hollywood
By David Booth
Originally published: March 4, 2016
When future generations look back at the first 125 years of automobile production, I suspect that three vehicles will stand out for having revolutionized how we drive: Ford’s Model T, the car that “put America on the road;” Volkswagen’s Beetle, the “people’s car;” and the Toyota Prius. The gas-electric hybrid will be remembered for ushering in the auto industry’s migration from the internal combustion engine. At 3.5 million units — and counting — it is, by far, the most popular low-emissions vehicle, and may someday challenge even the Model T and the Beetle for ubiquity.
Indeed, now that they are as common as the Chevy Malibu, it’s easy to forget how revolutionary the first Prius — with its gasoline and electric motors — was. When it was introduced in North America in 2000, Wikipedia didn’t exist. Nor did Facebook. North America had just recovered from the much-hyped, little remembered Y2K fiasco. There were no iPhones, no tablets, and GM was investing heavily … in Hummer!
Japan had the Toyota Prius since 1997, but the first-generation model arrived in North America in 2001.
Handout, Toyota
Then along came the first-generation Prius. The 1997 to 2003 model — like all subcompacts of the era — might not have been much to look at, but its combination of 1.5-litre four-cylinder gas engine and 33-kilowatt electric motor stood out in a world still dominated by V8s. Toyota only sold 123,000 first-gen Priuses, but it paved the way for the second-generation WX20 version.
Still powered by Hybrid Synergy Drive’s combination of 1.5-litre four-cylinder and an electric motor, the 2004 model year introduced the world to what has become the Prius’s iconic hatchback styling. Quirky it may have seemed, but the second generation started Prius’s reign as the environmental movement’s “fashion statement.” Suddenly, Hollywood’s leading lights — Leonardo DiCaprio, Harrison Ford and Julia Roberts, to name but a few — preferred to be seen in the eco-friendly little runabout rather than in their expensive exotic cars. Seemingly overnight, the Prius — Latin for “to come before” — became a status symbol.
The third-generation Toyota Prius proved to be wildly popular, spawning variants such as the wagon-like Prius V (pictured here) and the compact Prius C.
Handout, Toyota
This led to the phenomenal popularity of the third-generation Prius. The gasoline motor was up-sized to 1.8 litres, yet its fuel economy improved to 4.7 L/100 km. An incredible 1.9 million units of the WX30 were sold between 2010 and 2015, spawning hybrids from every automaker as competitors struggled to catch up. What started as a niche others thought unworthy of emulating had become a mainstream player everyone was trying to copy.
Now in its fourth generation, the Prius has added the efficiency of lithium-ion batteries to its Hybrid Energy Drive, a sportier stance to its suspension and a little more convention to its interior layout. No longer just a “green” car, the latest Prius is proof hybrids are moving beyond early adopter status. And don’t be fooled by its 4.5 L/100 km Natural Resources Canada rating; that seemingly minor improvement in “official” fuel economy has more to do with Transport Canada switching to five-cycle testing from two-cycle. In real-world driving, the fourth-generation Prius stands out for registering the lowest real-world urban fuel economy Autovision magazine has ever recorded by a non-plug-in vehicle.
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.singsupplies.com/showthread.php?226208-Toyota-Prius-II&goto=newpost).
Last week I posted an article about this car - the Toyota Prius, because a new version was being launched. Well, here is another article, more about how the Prius came to be so successful. I suppose the greening mindset of the public has a lot to do with it. Can't be the price of gasoline. Gas is very affordable (thanks to technology, and more markets in its by products). The green competition will come to a duel between electric motor and hydrogen fuel-cell, of which Toyota has got both ends covered. The Prius (for the electric-gasoline hybrid) and the Mirai (for the hydrogen fuel-cell) Ladies and gentlemen, we will soon see the demise of the internal-combustion engine - good riddance, it was fun while it lasted!
Cheers!
http://driving.ca/toyota/prius/auto-...y-of-the-prius (http://driving.ca/toyota/prius/auto-news/news/the-history-of-the-prius)
How the Toyota Prius took over the world
closer look at the history of a car that started a whole new segment, with a little help from Hollywood
By David Booth
Originally published: March 4, 2016
When future generations look back at the first 125 years of automobile production, I suspect that three vehicles will stand out for having revolutionized how we drive: Ford’s Model T, the car that “put America on the road;” Volkswagen’s Beetle, the “people’s car;” and the Toyota Prius. The gas-electric hybrid will be remembered for ushering in the auto industry’s migration from the internal combustion engine. At 3.5 million units — and counting — it is, by far, the most popular low-emissions vehicle, and may someday challenge even the Model T and the Beetle for ubiquity.
Indeed, now that they are as common as the Chevy Malibu, it’s easy to forget how revolutionary the first Prius — with its gasoline and electric motors — was. When it was introduced in North America in 2000, Wikipedia didn’t exist. Nor did Facebook. North America had just recovered from the much-hyped, little remembered Y2K fiasco. There were no iPhones, no tablets, and GM was investing heavily … in Hummer!
Japan had the Toyota Prius since 1997, but the first-generation model arrived in North America in 2001.
Handout, Toyota
Then along came the first-generation Prius. The 1997 to 2003 model — like all subcompacts of the era — might not have been much to look at, but its combination of 1.5-litre four-cylinder gas engine and 33-kilowatt electric motor stood out in a world still dominated by V8s. Toyota only sold 123,000 first-gen Priuses, but it paved the way for the second-generation WX20 version.
Still powered by Hybrid Synergy Drive’s combination of 1.5-litre four-cylinder and an electric motor, the 2004 model year introduced the world to what has become the Prius’s iconic hatchback styling. Quirky it may have seemed, but the second generation started Prius’s reign as the environmental movement’s “fashion statement.” Suddenly, Hollywood’s leading lights — Leonardo DiCaprio, Harrison Ford and Julia Roberts, to name but a few — preferred to be seen in the eco-friendly little runabout rather than in their expensive exotic cars. Seemingly overnight, the Prius — Latin for “to come before” — became a status symbol.
The third-generation Toyota Prius proved to be wildly popular, spawning variants such as the wagon-like Prius V (pictured here) and the compact Prius C.
Handout, Toyota
This led to the phenomenal popularity of the third-generation Prius. The gasoline motor was up-sized to 1.8 litres, yet its fuel economy improved to 4.7 L/100 km. An incredible 1.9 million units of the WX30 were sold between 2010 and 2015, spawning hybrids from every automaker as competitors struggled to catch up. What started as a niche others thought unworthy of emulating had become a mainstream player everyone was trying to copy.
Now in its fourth generation, the Prius has added the efficiency of lithium-ion batteries to its Hybrid Energy Drive, a sportier stance to its suspension and a little more convention to its interior layout. No longer just a “green” car, the latest Prius is proof hybrids are moving beyond early adopter status. And don’t be fooled by its 4.5 L/100 km Natural Resources Canada rating; that seemingly minor improvement in “official” fuel economy has more to do with Transport Canada switching to five-cycle testing from two-cycle. In real-world driving, the fourth-generation Prius stands out for registering the lowest real-world urban fuel economy Autovision magazine has ever recorded by a non-plug-in vehicle.
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.singsupplies.com/showthread.php?226208-Toyota-Prius-II&goto=newpost).