The Prius That Shook.. - VFAQ Prius Site

Uchiyamada, who was determined that a new concept for
a sedan would be necessary in the post-RV era, admonished
and encouraged the design team by saying, "G21's
concept should be translatable into a good design because
its package makes sense as a car," and "when Rover
Mini and VW Beetle were introduced, they were seen as
heretics. Only time will tell the true worth of a car.
Uchiyamada told himself, "If we give up and say that
something is good enough, we will never get beyond the 1995
benchmark Prius." He restrained himself from
compromising and held on for the arrival of the perfect
design.
A competition by seven teams
Uchiyamada decided on a new approach. "We shouldn't
depend only on our own Design Division II. We
should instead have all of Toyota's design divisions compete
against each other for the design." Uchiyamada contacted the
Head Office Design Division and requested that it organize
the competition.
Head Office Design Division, Tokyo Design Division,
Design Division II, CALTY of California, EPOC of Europe, a
team of contractor designers at Toyota, and the Design
Division of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works (which is a
Toyota Group company) submitted designs.
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