Prius came first (introduced in 1997), then came the Honda Insight (1999) - the Civic hybrid rolled off around 2001. 2nd gen. Prius was introduced 2003, but sa

Prius came first (introduced in 1997), then came the Honda Insight (1999) - the Civic hybrid rolled off around 2001. 2nd gen. Prius was introduced 2003, but sales only picked up around 2005 < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius >. The design wasn't the only factor - I would say Toyota's marketing and rising gas prices contributed too < http://zfacts.com/gas-price-history-graph http://zfacts.com/gas-price-history-graph >.