Thanks to its lengthy efforts, Toyota is now the world's leading hybrid car maker in terms of sales. The parallel courses followed by the road car and the race vehicle came together on the Le Mans race track and in the FIA World Endurance Championship, perfectly embodying the vocation of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest to get road and sports technologies interacting on an ongoing basis.
1994 – Launch of the G21 project, aimed at multiplying petrol and diesel engine efficiency by 1.5. In fact, it would be multiplied by 2 thanks to the THS (Toyota Hybrid System), which converts kinetic energy (disseminated in the form of heat during braking) into electrical energy, to supplement the power from the vehicle's combustion engine;
1997 – First version of the Toyota Prius launched in Japan; it arrived in Europe three years later. Almost 125,000 of these cars were sold.
2004 – Launch of the second-generation Prius, which exceeded the million sales mark worldwide.
2006 – Initiated in 2005, the project for a hybrid competition engine materialised with the Lexus GS 450H which competed in the 24 Hours of Tokachi in Japan.
2007 – Again in Tokachi, the Supra HV-R claimed the first victory for a hybrid engine in an endurance race.
2009 – launch of the third generation of Prius, which has sold 2.2 million worldwide to date. 2012 saw the release of Prius+, the first hybrid people carrier on the European market, as well as the Prius Plug-In hybrid.
2012 – Toyota returned to the Le Mans 24 Hours with the prototype LM P1 TS030 Hybrid, which stores braking energy in a supercapacitor.
2013 – launch of the Toyota Auris hybrid version.
2014 – Toyota continues its adventure at Le Mans and in the FIA World Endurance Championship with the TS040 Hybrid, with an additional supercapacitor on the front axle to allow the car to use temporary four-wheel drive (with, in line with the new LM P1 regulations set by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, fuel consumption reduced by 25 %). Kazuki Nakajima took the wheel to become the first Japanese driver to bag pole position at the 24 Hours, while Sébastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson became world champions and Toyota took the manufacturers' title with five wins in eight races.

Jean-Philippe Doret / ACO                Translated by Clair Pickworth

Photo: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), 24-HOUR CIRCUIT, 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, SUNDAY 15 JUNE 2014, RACE. After its pole position and fourteen hours leading the race in 2014, Toyota's number one priority in 2015 is victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours.