20 years of the pioneering Prius

Looking Back on the Birth of the Prius 20 Years Ago

Our mission in the development of the first-generation Prius was two-fold: build a car for the 21st century and transform the way Toyota makes cars.
Among the many issues facing the automotive world at the time, we anchored our efforts on the two key themes of environmental preservation and natural resource conservation. We did so because few automakers had ventured to address such immense issues and because we knew that someone would have to do it someday.