AS the queues built up at filling stations ahead of last week's fuel protests, the head of sales and marketing at Toyota UK was probably feeling rather smug.

Even the most ambitious motor manufacturers have been slow to capitalise on the public's growing resentment at paying nearly £5 for a gallon of fuel.

Except Toyota. Whereas most big motor manufacturers saw so-called hybrid technology - a mix of old and new petrol/electric propulsion aimed at slashing fuel costs - as a curious diversion, the Japanese have streaked ahead.

Only last week, at the Frankfurt Motor Show, car companies were falling over themselves to unveil hybrids. Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche and VW all hope to have a hybrid in their catalogues by the end of the decade.

Toyota has such a car available now for immediate delivery. And, just like that other trendy icon the Apple iPod, it seems customers just can't get enough of the Toyota Prius.

Ironically, its greatest success has been in the US, where the slightly gawky-looking hatchback has become the must-have vehicle of Hollywood celebrities.

Cameron Diaz drives one, so does Julia Roberts. And how VW must have been hurt when Michael Keaton, star of the new Herbie remake, turned down a Beetle because he already had a Toyota Prius.

The Prius has been a success partly because it looks so ordinary. Honda tried the hybrid route at the same time but its offering - the Insight - was a wacky coupe with only two seats and no boot.

No one bought it.

The Prius, on the other hand, could be any ordinary hatchback - only it does 100mph and uses electricity to return a 67 mpg fuel consumption figure.

In Britain, Toyota has sold 6,000 in five years.

These are small figures, but they are growing - and fast.

For all their hybrid talk, the Germans remain firmly of the view that hybrids could be nothing more than a passing fad.

Helmut Panke, BMW's chief executive, appeared to shoot himself in the foot at Frankfurt when he admitted: "It has uses in congested areas but, elsewhere, you can achieve results that are as good or better with diesel. Will a farmer in Scotland ever want to buy a hybrid?"

The answer to that is that they just might, and Toyota has a vehicle waiting when they do.

The Lexus RX 300 off-roader can now be had with hybrid propulsion and first impressions are very favourable.

And to the innovator are due the spoils.

As well as making a million hybrids by 2010, Toyota hopes to license its technology to other car makers. Nissan and Ford have already paid up.

The company hopes to make its take on hybrid tech the standard, even though two power units increase complexity, weight and, most of all, cost.

But the signs are good for hybrids and it seems that some motorists are willing to accept a price premium to do their bit for the environment.