“…to the birthplace of the Prius”

Posted by Colin Hensley on June 03, 2009 in 360° approach, Green Technologies

By the time this gets onto the blog I will be in Japan working on the final preparations for a Hybrid Experience Trip that we have organised to help increase knowledge of our full hybrid technology and its history. While I am very happy that we will have the chance to explain this to the journalists who are attending, I am also really excited to be able to participate myself. It will be great to hear more about our technology directly from the Top Management who are responsible for it, and especially exciting to get the chance to go to the Tsutsumi plant, where the Prius is built.

I have been involved with Prius for more than 10 years. In 1999 I accompanied Uchiyamada-san, now Executive Vice-President at TMC, to the Royal Society in London, where he received an award for his work on the original Prius. So it will be quite reminiscent to hear him speak again 10 years on and more than one and a quarter million sales later.

As for the plant, well, it is one of the flagship sustainable plants, with an amazing array of activities going on. These include a massive array of solar panels, wastewater treatments, tree planting, and photo-catalytic paint on the outside of the building, which breaks down NOx. The great thing for me is that these activities still proceed at full speed, even though the plant has reached full capacity and beyond…

I’ll do my best to get a few pictures of the most interesting things, and post them either here or directly in a Tweet (@toyota_europe)

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