TOKYO — Just before pulling the wraps off the sleek, sporty, radically redesigned fifth-generation Prius, Toyota's global design chief dropped the big question on every doubter's mind.
"How long are you going to keep making hybrids?" Simon Humphries asked, parroting the growing legions of critics targeting Toyota for sticking with gasoline-electrics in the EV age.
Toyota's answer might well be — hybrids today, hybrids tomorrow, hybrids forever.
A quarter century after introducing the world to the fuel-sipping technology with the debut of the first-generation Prius in 1997, Toyota Motor Corp. sees hybrids in play possibly through 2050.
That is when the world's biggest carmaker aims to achieve carbon neutrality. And top executives say hybrids — even with their internal combustion engines — will play a big role in getting there.
"Of course they will," said Toyota Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada, known as the Father of the Prius, who stunned the auto world by developing the first-generation hybrid 25 years ago.