Mantrack

January, 1999

Toyota Charges AheadWhen Toyota brought its environmentally friendly Prius to Chicago not long ago, we'd never heard of it--even though the car had been on sale in Japan for about a year. The Prius (pictured here) combines the comfort and performance of a compact sedan with a curious power plant that operates on batteries and an electric motor at low speeds, then switches to a 1.5-liter gasoline engine as you accelerate (it's been dubbed the Toyota Hybrid System). An onboard generator charges th...