Pimp my Prius: modded hybrids and electric cars on the rise in Japan

Tokyo Auto Salon, one of the biggest modified car shows on the planet, rolled through Japan earlier this month. The event featured everything from Italian supercars and the meanest Japanese coupes (I’ve never seen so many Nissan GT-Rs or Lexus LFAs) to classic American muscle and one-off kit cars. Hoods were popped, with owners boasting about their upgrades generating more horsepower than anything in a country with a maximum speed limit of 100 km/h could ever need.

Despite the many speed freaks, an unexpected kind of tuner car was on prominent display: the home-grown hybrid. The Toyota Prius was one of the most popular customized cars of the entire show. Why on earth would anyone want to pimp out a Prius? The answer is likely tied to both economics and convenience.

While by no means the priciest in the region, gasoline is relatively expensive in Japan. In the fourth quarter of 2014, it averaged US$5.79 per gallon (3.8 liters) compared to just US$2.93 in the US. Hybrids sip gasoline – the latest Prius gets about 50 miles per gallon – and fully electric vehicles (EVs) like the Nissan Leaf skip the pump altogether. It’s not the price of fuel alone that drives the popularity of such vehicles in Japan – taxes and government incentives play a large part.

The Japanese government’s “Clean Energy” subsidy program provides roughly US$7,200 toward the purchase of a new EV (a figure that was as high as US$10,000 before the yen began sliding in 2013). Even more, these cars are exempt from Japan’s five percent “acquisition tax,” road tax, and receive a deep discount toward the country’s annual automotive tax. Following the debut of Toyota’s hydrogen fuel cell-powered Mirai, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe announced a whopping US$17,000 subsidy for fuel cell vehicles. Abe also became the first owner of a production Mirai two days ago.

While hybrids, EVs, and fuel cell vehicles may seem out of place at an auto show that focuses on performance upgrades, tuning such vehicles is, in fact, possible – it’s just not as easy as adding a turbocharger or a fancy exhaust system. Such eco-friendly cars rely on electric motors and sophisticated computer systems to provide a combination of power and battery efficiency. “Chipping” – installing a microchip that overrides the vehicle’s computers in order to boost power at the cost of battery longevity – is one such way to inject some speed into a car that was designed to be eco-friendly above all else. Of course, upgrades can be made to the wheels, suspension, and body to make them more nimble, but the hybrids and EVs at Tokyo Auto Salon looked far more concerned with turning heads than tearing up the local track.

Here’s a collection of the wildest hybrids, EVs – and even a peek at Toyota’s hydrogen-powered rally car – that the show had to offer.

First up are some very noisy Priuses:

But perhaps even flashier are these two: one outlined in LEDs and the other painted chrome:

Toyota had its G’s line of factory-tuned Hybrids on display, which included the Aqua and several iterations of the Prius:

There were even Aqua and Prius rally cars on display:

One of the show-stoppers was another rally car, Toyota’s Gazoo Racing Mirai FCV, which was used as the literal “zero car” in Japan’s Shinshiro Rally last November.

Though not a domestically-produced car, Japanese tuning house Eve Ryn was showing off its body-kitted electric BMW – the world’s first custom i3:

Last but not least (and apologies for the blur – these were taken with my smartphone after my good camera died), a pair of ridiculously over-the-top Nissan Leafs (Leaves?):

See: Tesla rival? Japan’s coolest electric sports car is ready to roll