Toyota says: The FT-CH meets Toyota’s strategy to offer a wider variety of full hybrid choices to its customers, in addition to the introduction of plug-in hybrids and battery electrics.

Spec sheet: Compact Hybrid concept (thus the ‘CH’ bit of its name) designed to imagine a sub-Prius-sized Toyota petrol/electric car.

At some 560mm shorter than a Prius, the FT-CH concept is Toyota’s take on a smaller and more affordable hybrid car. The likeable design was penned in Europe at Toyota’s ED2 studio in Nice, France by Ken Billes (exterior) and Ben Urwin (interior) and says Billes, “follows all the aerodynamic rules”. Billes also believes the small bonnet with very slim lights could make a good signature for Toyota’s soon to be expanding hybrid range (the firm wants to launch eight all-new hybrids in the next few years in the US alone).

Inside are also examples of green thinking. Urwin says the interior design was “based around reducing components” and cites the three-piece dashboard, the interior door panel made of less than six parts and the seatback and squab frames made of the exact same pressing as pertinent examples. The shape and function of the dashboard is also relevant, with air vents built into the heavily scored surface graphically reinforcing the sense of (and actual) airflow through the cabin from the low front exterior air splitter. Although officially billed as a design study for now, expect something similar to the spirit of this vehicle to make production within the next three years, to paraphrase Billes,“Toyota doesn’t make concept cars without reason.”