Featured The story behind the Prius

NAGOYA -- Since its first-generation Prius debuted in December 1997 with the slogan: "just in time for the 21st century," Toyota Motor has been a pioneer in hybrid vehicles.

Back then, hybrid cars were seen as a marginal segment in the auto industry, yet they quickly caught on with consumers and other carmakers have followed Toyota's lead.



Company Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada was the man behind the development of the first-generation Prius. He recently spoke to The Nikkei about the various challenges encountered during development of the world's first mass market hybrid car.

After joining Toyota in 1969, Uchiyamada spent many years testing various methods of resolving car vibration and noise issues. His life took a dramatic turn in January 1994, when he was appointed as the leader of the company's G21 project, an engineering team that paved the way for the development of the Prius.


Toyota Motor unveiled the Prius, its first-generation hybrid vehicle, at the Tokyo Motor Show on Oct. 22 in 1997.

"As we were approaching the 21st century, Toyota needed to figure out what a 21st-century car would look like. I was told that this was the management's thinking behind the launch of the project. Although then-Honorary Chairman Eiji Toyoda was often talking about that, we engineers were quite busy and deferred the project time and again. But then, we came under increased pressure and started a study group in September 1993."

"Initially, everyone in the team had other responsibilities as well, so I was named the leader because someone had to be solely dedicated to this project. Normally, carmakers think of target customers or rival models when developing a new car. But the only direction I received was to 'make a 21st-century car.' So, I thought we needed to create a clear vision first."

Uchiyamada and his team therefore set about the task by listing all the social issues and challenges they could think of -- traffic accidents, greater participation of women in the workforce, a declining birthrate and an aging population, the integration of information technology and automobiles, and many more. After much brainstorming, they decided to focus on the issues of energy and the environment.

"The company had already worked on a variety of issues, but energy and environment were areas that remained little addressed. As I looked more into these issues, I realized it was actually a huge challenge. So, I decided to commit myself to providing a solution to one of the most significant problems of the 21st century."

"At Toyota, however, opinions were divided on what to do with standard automotive features, such as air bags, at the time. Some said there was no telling whether consumers were willing to pay more for car safety. Given that, they argued it would be very difficult to focus on environmentally friendly technology. But contrary to expectations, the board of executives accepted our proposal with little hesitation."

Uchiyamada and his team set a number of goals, such as improving the fuel efficiency of existing gasoline engines by 50%. But a turning point came at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1995, when the team came up with the idea of installing a hybrid vehicle system to demonstrate good fuel economy, an important step toward the development of the Prius, the world's first mass-produced hybrid vehicle.

"Hybrids were initially positioned as a concept car for the motor show. Compared with passenger vehicles, our hybrid car ran with great difficulty and it was still lacking in reliability. But Akihiro Wada, the executive vice president at the time, and other executives started arguing that a 50% increase in fuel efficiency was not enough for the car of the 21st century and it should be a 100% increase. I believe they knew that it would be almost but impossible to achieve a 100% increase without using hybrid technology."

Panasonic was producing batteries for our electric RAV4 sport utility vehicle, which we released ahead of the Prius. This company also therefore developed batteries for hybrids but it was Toyota that decided on the testing method. While it may seem like a low-profile process, it is important to decide what kind of tests to conduct in balancing battery performance with costs. Since none of us understood what to do, we decided to assign this task to engineers in their late 30s."

"When it comes to developing ordinary passenger cars, many experienced, senior staff are too eager to offer advice. They often say 'Don't do that' and stop younger engineers from doing something new. But with hybrid technology, nobody knew what to do so they couldn't interfere. The people given the task had to think on their own and find a solution. There was a lot of pressure, but that helped raise our morale."

The development of the first-generation Prius was a race against time as well. Initially, Toyota was scheduled to release the Prius in 1999 but then twice brought forward the launch, first to 1998 and then to 1997. In the end, the automaker managed to roll out the first-generation model in time for the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in December 1997, but only just.

"In 1995, the company decided to bring the launch forward by one year to 1997. Although we had created a prototype vehicle at the time, it didn't function for 49 days and we were still struggling. Parts production was proceeding, with 1998 as the target release year. I wasn't confident, and I was afraid I couldn't deliver. Setting aside the time needed for production preparation and other procedures, we had little more than a year left for development. So, we agreed with the management that we would set checkpoints along the way and would postpone the launch of the Prius if the vehicle's quality and performance were deemed insufficient."

Nevertheless, the senior management didn't fully live up to this "promise." At a public meeting in March 1997 senior executive announced plans to "release a hybrid car by the end of the year." In other words, the company officially made a promise about the launch. Uchiyamada was too busy to be involved and all of a sudden felt he had been put in a very difficult situation.

"Our technology was not ready yet, so I told the management that they hadn't kept their word [on potentially delaying the launch]. We had yet to achieve the target fuel efficiency levels. But once the senior management had made the announcement, it became official. From then on, we worked 24 hours a day and seven days a week. We worked 1.5 times more than we did with regular projects and managed to keep the promise. All the engineers involved were under intense pressure, but we were all highly motivated to produce the world's first hybrid vehicle. That's how we overcame such a daunting challenge."

Toyota's release of the Prius came as a big surprise to rival automakers. "They wondered how on earth we were able to develop such a complex system in such a short period of time," Uchiyamada said. Uchiyamada believes they managed it by setting high targets while ensuring they avoided risks, such as by setting up the checkpoints along the development process.

"I wouldn't advise setting such high targets for every single task, but I think we should set a very ambitious goal when it comes to tackling a critically important issue. Easy targets would only amount to an accumulation of conventional efforts and "kaizen," or continuous improvement. But with a challenging target, there is a higher chance of making a breakthrough. I have learned that aspiring to become the No. 1 and the first in the world will naturally force us to work harder."

"That's why we stuck to the release of the Mirai, our fuel cell vehicle, by the end of 2014, not by the end of fiscal 2014 (in March 2015). Even if the task at hand seems daunting at first, it is always possible to find ways to overcome it with the determination to do so. We are aiming to achieve annual sales of 30,000 fuel cell vehicles around 2020, but I personally think this is the lowest possible sales target for us. Failure to achieve it would mean that we would not be able to put in place the necessary hydrogen infrastructure and make fuel cell vehicles widely accepted."

Toyota started selling the Prius only four years after the G21 project was launched. The achievement can also be attributed to the company's years of technological know-how.

"I think our electric vehicle technology was useful. Of course, electric vehicles and hybrids require different types of battery performance. Electric cars consume stored electricity gradually, whereas hybrids constantly alternate the use of electricity and gasoline. Our strength was that we had nurtured a pool of engineers with experience in relevant battery technology. We assigned those electric car engineers to hybrid development."

"A lesson I took away from this experience is that company officials, be it general managers or executives, need to challenge themselves to do what they think is necessary, aside from working on company-mandated development projects. Thus, I encourage such "nonofficial" research projects. I even tell our group company Toyota Central R&D Labs to spend 25% of their management resources on developing technology that will be necessary in the future, as opposed to just doing commissioned research projects."

Hybrid vehicles: The story behind the Prius - Nikkei Asian Review

 

I couldn't find a section that I can remove so I posted the entire thing.