Toyota's Prius has just celebrated its 15th birthday, writes Brian Byrne, and with almost 3m copies sold in that time, it shifted completely from being a curiosity to a mainstream model and a standard technology.
Prius is now in its third generation and apart from contributing strongly to more sustainable motoring and cleaner air, the model is also the leader in long-term reliability according to the German TUV organisation, which measures such things in a stringent and independent manner.
The hybrid technology developed by Toyota is now available across the company's models range, from Yaris through Auris to Lexus cars. The carmaker is planning 21 hybrid models globally before 2015.