Innovator Profiles-Takeshi Uchiyamada

The chief engineer of the Prius hybrid had car design in his DNA. Takeshi Uchiyamada was born in 1946 in the old castle town of Okazaki, Japan, near Toyota headquarters, and his father designed the Toyota Crown. The younger Uchiyamada joined Toyota in 1969, hoping to follow suit. But it was not until 1994, after years of work in software development and noise-and-vibration labs, that he got his chance. Charged with helping reorganize Toyota's various research centers, Uchiyamada got caught up in the concept of delivering an energy-efficient vehicle for the new millennium. In 1996, he became chief engineer for the Prius. It was released in October 1997.

"The whole matter of converting battery energy to a motor is extremely complicated," said Paul Hansen of The Hansen Report on Automotive Electronics (Portsmouth, N.H.). "The power electronics get really hot, and a power conversion module is very difficult to make and build cheaply."

Among its other innovations, the Prius delivered a more-sophisticated power train and an algorithm for deciding when to switch between the battery- and gas-driven engines. So far, Toyota has sold just short of 400,000 of the hybrids worldwide, establishing a new class of cars in the process.

"Toyota showed us hybrid vehicles can be made and sold in high volumes, and this is a serious market that carmakers will probably be able to profit from," said Hansen. Indeed, Ford says that in a few years, it will offer hybrid options for half its vehicles. Analysts such as Hansen say the hybrids will pave the way in many technologies for cars driven by fuel cells.

Fuel cell developers will need the same persistence and patience Uchiyamada has shown, because the future vehicles are a long way from being cost-effective.