The Prius That Shook.. - VFAQ Prius Site

transmission had been selected. Needless to say, there had
been absolutely no mention of a hybrid system. The team
that had reached agreement only about the packaging of the
car and the numerical targets for power output and fuel
economy. The fuel economy target was vague so as to be at
least 50% better than existing (Corolla class) cars.
Finally, the group began to address the questions of
whether or not they could achieve the performance target by
using existing parts and how many new parts needed to be
developed from scratch. The team agreed that it would
design a new platform, engine, and transmission. Since
they had selected a new seating position, they also had to
design the seat from scratch. The team members armed
themselves with the rather coercive argument that they
must try new units since they are designing a car for the
21 st century.
They also decided to try electronic power steering to
further improve fuel economy. Electronic power steering
was used only on mini-cars and on certain passenger-cars at
the time, and still had some problems in terms of cost,
reliability, and performance. In theory, however, it was capable
of improving fuel economy by three percent.
"It is evident that it will become an essential item in the
21 st century. It is definitely worth it to start trying it out,"
Uchiyamada said, so electronic power steering was included
in the new car. Most functional parts, therefore, were to be
designed from scratch, but the group had not
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