David Hermance
Automotive engineer
David W. Hermance (September 27, 1947 – November 25, 2006) was an American automotive engineer called the "American father of the Prius." According to Automotive News, he was considered the top American executive for alternative fuel vehicles.
Early life and education
Hermance was born in Logansport, Indiana to Keith Weston Hermance and Margaret "Peg" Johnstone Hermance.
Hermance earned a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the General Motors Institute.
Career
Hermance joined General Motors in 1965 and served in a variety of roles in the Vehicle Emissions Laboratory from 1971 to 1985. From 1985 to 1991, he served as department head for durability
test development at General Motors. He was a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers.
He joined Toyota Technical Center (TTC) in 1991 as senior manager in engine evaluation, with responsibility for evaluating North American passenger car engines. In 1992, he was promoted to general manager of the Powertrain Department in Gardena, California, where he was responsible for the development of engine and drivetrain calibrations for the North American market. His department tested many experimental designs, including TRW's "Electro-Mechanical Transmission", which became the hybrid electric vehicle.
At the Toyota Technical Center (TTC), Hermance served as executive engineer for advanced technology vehicles, overseeing North American vehicle communication and California emissions regulatory affairs.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5234944. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1947, 2006, 1965 and 1971.
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This entry incorporates text from “David Hermance” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.