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The Prius That Shook.. - VFAQ Prius Site

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from environmental issues than his family and that concerns<br />

over natural resources and the environment would one day<br />

become major social issues.<br />

Eventually, the team narrowed down the concept and<br />

settled on building a car that would be resource- and<br />

environment-friendly while retaining all the benefits of the<br />

modern car. In other words, the team acknowledged the<br />

original G21's goal to build "a small, fuel-efficient car."<br />

As a first step, the team reviewed the first G21 team's<br />

vehicle package design, and recalculated the measurements so<br />

as to take into account statistics of average human body<br />

dimensions.<br />

Since the main prerequisite of the car was to<br />

comfortably transport four adults, the team decided to<br />

design to the measurements of those between the 5 th<br />

percentile Japanese female (height of 148 centimeters or 4<br />

feet 11 inches) and the 90 th percentile American male (190<br />

centimeters or 6 feet 3 inches). <strong>The</strong> team was already<br />

anticipating an eventual introduction of the car into<br />

foreign countries.<br />

<strong>The</strong>re are many methods to design the packaging of a<br />

car. When designing from scratch, the most common way<br />

is to first determine the driver's position based on ergonomics.<br />

<strong>The</strong> team, therefore, began their discussion from this very<br />

basic and fundamental standpoint.<br />

"Let's first set the position of the driver's buttocks."<br />

Discussions began under the leadership of Vehicle<br />

Engineering Division I engineers who specialized in<br />

48

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