Who designed the Prius?

Yeah, but not all of us pronounce pig as peeg. :caked:

 

Donee (cc: The Tramp),

I believe you're right. I read the preceding chapter on CALTY, then the main chapter on the design competition for the Body of the Prius, and then skimmed and searched through the remaining chapters of the book about the engineering of the Prius, and I conclude with 99% certainty that the body of the Gen II Prius (model years 2004 - 2008) was designed by Irwin Lui of CALTY.

The book was written in 1999, and it clearly seems to be missing a chapter. I think that missing chapter goes something like this:

--- The Gen II Prius body design by Irwin Lui and CALTY* was favored and chosen by Toyota to be the first body for the Prius.

--- Engineering and technical difficulties in integrating the HSD system with the Gen II Prius body caused Toyota to use/revert to the Echo sedan body for the Gen I Prius.

And then the 2004 revised edition of the book would have this as the Afterward:

--- During the years of the Gen I Prius, those integration difficulties were being worked on and overcome, resulting ultimately in the 2004 Gen II Prius, body by Irwin Lui and CALTY.

*EDIT/SUPPLEMENT: The book describes the Irwin Lui/CALTY design as a futuristic, flowing, 5 door hatchback design -- like a soft form egg on its side, with pressure gradually being applied to its ends until the emergence of its final form. Sure sounds like the Gen II Prius body design to me.

 

Donee (cc: The Tramp),

According to this thread, the chief designer of the Gen II Prius was Tomio Yamazaki (the CFO of CALTY):

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-main-forum/16982-met-chief-designer-prius-ii-tonight.html

For the reasons already stated above, I still think Irwin Lui's design for CALTY must have been the basis for the Gen II Prius.