Detroit 2010: Prius Family Grows with Toyota FT-CH Concept

Toyota has just unveiled this lean, green FT-CH Concept, and used its 25-minute press conference to announce plans for annual sales of 1,000,000 hybrids “in the next few years.”

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Toyota is totally sold on the hybrid, so to meet its big sales goal, it plans to launch no fewer than eight brand new hybrid vehicles over the coming years, which includes a whole family of Prius models.

FT-CH would be a baby Prius
And this FT-CH – or Future Toyota Compact Hybrid to give it its full name – is one of the vehicles being considered for addition to the most famous hybrid brand in the world.

Designed in France. Nice.
The FT-CH was designed at Toyota’s rather nice ED2 facility in Nice, ironically enough. It’s intended to be a cheaper but more slinky hybrid, to compete with the Honda CRZ, so while it’s a whole 25cm shorter than a Prius it’s only a tiny bit narrower, to give it more presence. The FT-CH is also lighter than a Prius so it’s more fuel efficient.

Are you an 8-bit?
We read through the press materials, and by far the most interesting thing was that Toyota reckons it’s designed the FT-CH for a demographic group called the 8-bit generation.

Master System? NES? Or even older
These are people who grew up playing early 8-bit games consoles, listened to 80s electro music and appreciate the bright, simple colours of the art of the period.

Cheaper, better looking and better mpg than a Prius
Toyota’s designers reckon the FT-CH is fun, innovative, colourful and stylish enough to appeal to this sort of person. This is a fine but long winded way of saying that if the FT-CH makes production it’ll cost a fair bit less than a Prius to appeal to younger, late-20s buyers. Fingers crossed it comes with Space Invaders built-in to the centre console.