Hiroshi Okuda died at 93.
As Toyota president from 1995, he launched Vision 2005 to build cars locally, expanding overseas manufacturing and doubling overseas sales.
He pledged in March 1997 to launch a hybrid; the Prius debuted Oct 1997 and sold over 6 million worldwide.
Hiroshi Okuda, the former Toyota president widely credited as the architect behind the Prius and the company’s global push, has died at 93. His tenure in the 1990s and early 2000s helped turn Toyota from a conservative Japanese giant into a brand that built cars where it sold them and backed hybrid power early.
That shift is why a Prius is as common in Los Angeles as a Camry is in Tokyo, and why Toyota today still builds its strategy around electrified drivetrains. News of Okuda’s death has automakers and analysts revisiting the decisions he pushed through, moves that changed what many drivers now take for granted.
