The perfumed Prius

Honda is going down the sporty coupe road with its born-again Insight hybrid.

Toyota is also investigating a petrol-electric Supra sporty, but the new Prius is being pictured as an eco-friendly family wagon.

It could easily be the next Prius — or something in the Prius family.

Toyota's hybrid chief admits the company needs to find new ways of packaging hybrids to achieve its goal of selling one million a year.

The original target was the year 2010, but that looks as likely as Toyota winning this year's Formula One championship.

It has the Prius and it is almost certain to build the sporty car it showed at the Detroit Motor Show in January — either as a Supra or Celica — but it needs other stuff.

That is where the Hybrid X comes in. Toyota Australia says the next Prius is not expected until 2009 and believes it will be previewed at the Tokyo Motor Show in October.

So where does that leave the Hybrid X? It is a European project designed at Toyota's advanced styling studio, ED2, on a French hillside near Cannes.

Toyota says it is the same size as a regular family car, which means slightly bigger than the Prius, but is intended to preview the "design language for future hybrid models" with a "four-seat open-space concept".

Translating the corporate speak, what emerges is a Prius-style people mover with the clear potential to grow Toyota's hybrid family.

The motor show machine has doors that open to reveal the cabin and a glass roof, which are impractical for production. But it has an updated "Synergy Drive' power system.

Toyota says it will have a strong influence on the future direction of its hybrid vehicles.

There is a formal style in the shape of the vehicle, but passengers' senses of sound, smell, sight and touch come into play, interior designer Laurent Bouzige says.

The vehicle uses LED lamps for all lighting, graphic displays instead of instruments, and has electric doors, but still rolls on trendy 20-inch alloy wheels.

It has drive-by-wire steering and even has a perfume diffuser.