Presented at a ceremony to mark the Prefecture’s first year of reconstruction, the units will provide power for emergency evacuation shelters, ensuring communication and information networks stay live and allowing hot food to be prepared.

Up to 1,500 watts can be drawn down from the Prius’s battery pack using the device, giving enough power for most household electrical appliances. The car’s petrol engine can also be used to sustain charge – Toyota estimates two days of power supply at maximum output from a single tank of fuel.

A further 23 power supply units will be supplied to public use vehicles in the Tohoku region, with Miyagi Prefecture given the first set because they were the hardest hit in the Great East Japan Earthquake last March.

The power supply feature will be factory-installed on the Prius from 2012, with availability to be extended across Toyota’s hybrids in the near future.