Hybrid cars in the 90s?

ArKhan

What if at about the same time as GM came out with the EV1 in 1996, Toyota came out with a car similar to OTL's Prius. Would EV and Hybrid technology catch on with other automakers, or would the EV1 still suffer the same fate, with the same Hummer dominated 2000s?
 

Lord Grattan

Color-Copycat said:
In a decade of relatively manageable gas prices, it'd probably be just another gimmick.
Click to expand...

Exactly! In January 1999 I remember paying around a $1 for a gallon of gas, which was about what I was paying 10 years earlier (granted, it rose above $1.50 per gallon a few times, but still...)
 

Bureaucromancer

Also consider that the EV1 was pretty much the pinnacle of battery tech at that point, and was thoroughly bogged down in patents. Could have happened with high gas prices, and would have accelerated development, but a really Prius like hybrid wasn't possible at the time. Of course Honda did launch the Insight in 99, though calling it a true hybrid is a bit of a stretch.
 
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