Japanese government funded Toyota Prius?
April 3, 2008 by Alborz Fallah
Former head of Toyota North America and current Chrysler co-President, Jim Press, has come out with a huge bombshell by saying development of the iconic Prius hybrid car was subsidised by the Japanese government.
Published last week in BusinessWeek, Press said that while he was working at Toyota, ” The Japanese government paid for 100 percent of the development of the battery and hybrid system that went into the Toyota Prius.”
The statement adds further fuel to an argument that has raged on for the greater part of the last decade – are hybrid cars profitable? In the early days many manufacturers publicly stated that Toyota’s Prius program cannot be profitable, while the Big T insisted otherwise all along.
The Japanese giant quickly dismissed the comment made by Press. Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco said Toyota has never received public money for developing the battery or any other part of the Prius.
” I can say 100 percent that Toyota received absolutely no support — no money, no grants — from the Japanese government for the development of the Prius,” Nolasco told The Associated Press today in Tokyo.
Even if the statement is true, was it wrong for the Japanese government to fund the Prius program? Toyota now has a huge lead in the hybrid market, which was undeniably helped along by the early development of the Prius. Toyota is also the world’s biggest manufacturer, no doubt helped by its green image.
Toyota has sold over one million Prius cars and sales are only increasing.
The word Prius is a Latin word meaning “to go before”. Toyota picked the name to symbolise the car as a taste of what was to come. Looking back, the first Prius sold in Japan in 1997 and 11 years on, the Prius really was a taste of things to come!
Print it: 
“tyler Says:
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:52 pm
no wonder jim press is Former head of Toyota North America. i think Chrysler should get rid of him as well. ”
Good point, I wouldn’t want this clown on my team.
This is such nonsense. Why is this being discussed and why do I even reply…. To say the Japanese government contributed nothing to the development of the Prius is like saying the Highway Patrol (in the U.S.) doesn’t drive Ford Crown Victorias. In other words, the Japanese Government has purchased enough Toyotas to fund just about any Toyota project. It might not appear on paper that way. The U.S. Government likewise purchases Fords, Chryslers, Cadillacs, Chevrolets etc.
Please,
The U.S. Government buys big cars and big trucks. They all require factories and assembly lines. Does the DNR in anyone’s state in the U.S. drive fleets of Chevy S-10 trucks? NO they drive 1/2 to full ton pickups and big utility vehicles. When is the last time you saw a politician get out of a Dodge Neon? NO they drive Big Cadillacs or Lincolns or Chryslers. Does the Secret Service drive Ford Escapes? NO they drive Ford Excursions. The automakers in the U.S. are left with plants that build big cars and trucks. So what now (?) a bunch of no-it-alls criticizing the auto-makers for making big cars. Maybe the automakers in the U.S. should do it all for free. Pay the workers $15 an hour. They should build assembly plants when no government agency in the U.S. buys the cars they build. Nonsense.
Thank you.
The Japs conquered the car markets very systematically, picking, in about 1971, Switzerland as test terrain for Europe.
The Prius is an accident! Toyota was preparing for stricter fuel standards in Cailfornia. By the time the car came out, fuel standards had been relaxed again, due to the oil lobby in Wash. DC.
We do need to reduce the fumes in the cities and the noise plus of course spend less Dollars in the Middle East. So the Prius makes sense, but I am not sure if I can afford one.