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Toyota Launches Plug-in Trial for Prius In UK

Toyota says plug-in Prius will achieve 70 to 100 miles per gallon.

Toyota started a public trial of some plug-in Toyota Prius models in the UK, which if successful could let the plug-in Prius owners sell the surplus electricity they produce back into the power grid.

The conversion bring s a larger battery pack into the Prius, as well as the ability to plug the car into a 240V household circuit.  The trial is scheduled to run for atleast a year, involving user feedback, infrastructure set-up and usability testing.  Toyota is also planning on selling plug-in versions of the Toyota Prius that use rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, which are said to last longer thasn the current nickel-metal hydride battery packs.

Toyota’s Bringing Battery Production State-side

Toyota says it will eventually manufacture it's hybrid batteries in North America

The Toyota prius's main stumbling block as a profitable automobile, is the cost of the battery packs used to give it such great fuel economy. To counter-act this, Toyota Plans to eventually bring production of the hybrid battery packs into north america.

Toyota plans to bring the profit margin of the Prius closer to that of a non-hybrid Toyota Corolla sedan.  This is just one of the cost cutting measures they plan to put into place to acheive this.

On the other hand, Chevrolet and it's Chevy Volt electric car, states that they plan on losing money initially with each hybrid vehicle they sell, because of the high cost of the battery packs.  Toyota is smart enough to combat this by bringing the production into North America where the majority of the cars are being sold.

On a final note, Toyota has also announced that it will be unveiling a dedicated hybrid vehicle for it's upscale Lexus brand at the Detroit Auto Show in January.