In 1995, the first Toyota Prius prototype refused to move, baffling the project team and Takeshi Uchiyamada – Toyota’s current chairman. “We had no idea what was wrong, so we worked late every night to figure it out. We finally got it to move around Christmas time, but even then we only managed to drive it for 500 metres,” he recalls.

At the time, hybrid cars were unproven, experimental machines with a very uncertain future. Fast-forward 20 years and Toyota has today sold more than eight million hybrid vehicles. Such is the growth rate of hybrid’s popularity; it is only 10 months since the milestone of seven million sales was passed.

To put the impact of eight million hybrids on people and the environment into context, Toyota calculates that to date, its hybrid vehicles have resulted in savings of around 58 million tons of CO2 emissions, compared to the performance of the same number of equivalent, petrol-powered vehicles. It also estimates that its hybrids have saved 22 million kilolitres of fuel, compared to the amount used by petrol vehicles of the same size.

Since launching the Prius in 1997, Toyota has been gradually adding models to its range, from the Yaris Hybrid super-mini to the recently announced RAV4 Hybrid. Since 2010, the line-up has included the Auris Hybrid, Europe’s best-selling hybrid model. Toyota currently sells 30 different hybrid passenger cars (including Lexus models) in more than 90 markets around the world.