The Prius That Shook.. - VFAQ Prius Site

publications that seldom feature automotive news, such as
women's magazines, sports magazines, and weekly comic
magazines covered the official presentation of Prius
extensively.
Immediately after the presentation, a large-scale test drive
event was scheduled for automotive journalists, general
media, and foreign media at Hakuba Village in Nagano
Prefecture that was being prepared for the Winter Olympics.
The Tokyo Motor Show was starting from October 22 nd .
In December, events such as the Kyoto Summit on Global
Warming (COP3) and the 14 th Electric Vehicle Symposium
(EVS14) at Orlando, Florida were taking place. Prius had to be
prepared in optimal shape for these events.
Although product planning members, such as Oi, Ogiso,
and Ishida, joined the Prius presentation as speakers, they had
no time to enjoy the excitement and had to return to the plant
the following day. Oi stared at his schedule completely
filled up until the launch date, and spent every day under a
great deal of stress.
Line-off is the start of mass production of a new model. For
several months before line-off, mass-production tests are
conducted by producing several cars using the actual
assembly lines and facilities as if real production were
underway to check for problems. A mass-production test car
was used for the new car presentation. At this point, Prius still
had some
361