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With work well underway on the facelifted new Prius, Toyota will be exploring new avenues of green machines at this month's upcoming Tokyo Motor Show. Among them will be this: the 'environmentally-considerate' 1/X Concept.

Pronounced 1/Xth and meant to indicate its lightweight attributes through its name, the 1/X highlights the car's somewhat apparent weight-saving design enhancements by expressing its name as a fraction of the weight of its potential class-mates.

Toyota compare their latest hybrid concept with that of the million unit-selling Prius and while a facelifted new model of the best-selling hybrid in history won't get a 1/X facial transplant, the next-generation Prius and a new model slotting beneath the present-day hybrid could - with its lightweight technologies likely to feature in some shape or form on future models.

A baby Prius is rumoured for a 2010 entry in part of Toyota's strategy to meet annual sales targets of 1,000,000 hybrid units worldwide.

Press Release

Tokyo — TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announced today that it plans to exhibit eight concept and 13 other vehicles at the 40th Tokyo Motor Show* under the theme: "Harmonious Drive—a New Tomorrow for People and the Planet".

In keeping with its tradition of highlighting new, automotive possibilities at the Tokyo Motor Show in the form of a wide variety of concept vehicles and groundbreaking technologies, TMC's exhibit, this time as well, is meant to provide new proposals for the automobile. Planned highlights include a vehicle that completely redefines what it means to be environmentally considerate and one that rewrites the rules of auto design with a proposal for ultra-efficient vehicle packaging.

Through the exhibit, TMC aims to showcase its pursuit of the essential emotional appeal of cars—being fun to drive and a pleasure to use—and to indicate its approach toward making sustainable mobility a reality so that people can coexist in harmony with the environment.

1/X

The 1/X (pronounced "one-Xth") is a concept vehicle that redefines from its very roots the idea of what it means to be environmentally considerate. Among its attributes, the vehicle—with a design that aims to harmoniously coexist with people and society—weighs only “1/Xth” that of other vehicles in its class.

• Maintains an interior space on par with that of the Prius, with an aimed-for fuel efficiency that is double and a weight reduced to 420 kilograms (about one third the weight of the Prius).
• Combines fossil fuel consumption-reducing FFV* technology and a plug-in hybrid powertrain with a displacement of only 500cc that allows charging from an external power source and a longer electric-motor cruising distance; thus, in addition to being adapted for energy diversity, emits less CO2 and contributes to the prevention of air pollution.
• Locates the power unit beneath the rear seat (for a midship, rear-wheel-drive system) to contribute to an innovative and highly efficient package.
• Adopts light but highly rigid carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) throughout the body frame to ensure superior collision safety, while allowing narrower pillars for a better field of vision.