Enlarge / After a controversially styled fourth-generation Prius, the new car looks much more cohesive. (credit: Toyota)

First seen on US roads in 2000, the Prius soon became a byword for environmentally conscious driving, marked by distinctive styling that was hard to mistake for anything else on the road. In the intervening decades, Toyota has sold millions, although many fewer now than during the nameplate’s heyday in the early teens.

In part, that might have been due to the Prius’s highly efficient Atkinson Cycle powertrain making its way into other Toyotas. The powertrain still offered nearly as impressive fuel economy, sometimes paired with a small traction battery as a “regular” hybrid and sometimes paired with a larger one as a plug-in hybrid (or Prime, in Toyota-speak).