The 2010 North American International Auto Show in Detroit saw Toyota dropping the curtains on the FT-CH, a conceptual proposal for a dedicated compact hybrid model that slots right under the Prius. Styled at Toyota's European Design and Development (ED²) center in Nice, France, the FT-CH is 22 inches shorter in overall length and about an inch narrower than the Prius.
Being more compact in size and lighter in weight than the firm's bread-and-butter hybrid model, means that if the FT-CH were to be produced, it would be even more fuel efficient than the Prius.
"It's a package Toyota dealers and customers have been asking for," said Toyota USA boss Jim Lentz.
While Toyota didn't disclose any specific details about the concept, the Japanese automaker revealed that it plans to sell a million hybrids per year globally, a majority of those in North America, within the next few years.
And to achieve this, Toyota said that it will launch a total of eight all new hybrid models over the next few years. According to the company, these will not include next generation versions of current hybrids but instead, they will be all new dedicated hybrid vehicles, or all new hybrid versions of existing gasoline-engine models.
7 Comments:
What a funky little car,though I don't think the headlights are big enough...
the rear looks similar the the mazda3. not a bad thing. i think toyota needs to look very seriously of rebuilding scion with such cars as this sleek number (!) or scion will go the way of saturn.
Needs to be priced well under $20.000.
Scions are doing quite well sales wise, in the NW US, but yes, this would be a good model for Scion.
3Deuce27
yes yes...
Great concept
wonderfully done
(-:
none of this concept will ever make it into production...they had a similar concept a few years ago on the Prius and what came out was just a warmed over version of the previous one...it will end up as a hybrid Yaris or Xd...
this does looks a bit like the mazda3. it would be perfect for toyota's scion youth brand. if they do not build scion up, it will go the way of saturn as stated above. it makes no sense to put it off. this would have been the prime opportunity, especially now that nissan has the cube and gmw just previewed a vehicle not unlike the xb by scion. wake up toyota/lexus/scion!
As anon#1 put..its a very funky little hatch. Completely refreshing design language, the head light location, even if it is small it will be powerfull enough. If observed carefully the AC vents are cleverly integrated into the dashboard design. A very good concept work and hope Toyota brings this to the production table.
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