Cheap Gas Car Blog

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.

Toyota Launches Prius in India

Toyota Prius will help combat pollution and be an answer to soaring fuel prices.

Though Toyota has no set timeline, they expect to bring the Prius to India before the end of 2008, depending on the ability of the company to train their dealerships about the new technology, as well as stock their parts stores with the appropriate supplies.  Being the first mass-produced electric fuel hybrid, the Toyota Prius sold more than one million units worldwide in April 2008, including more than 590,000 units within the US.

New Prius Gets Solar Panels

Prius spied while doing testing in Desert, gets optional solar panels and bigger motor.

The new Toyota Prius that will be unveiled in January at the Detroit Auto Show was seen by Auto Week while doing testing.  The new version of the Prius is slightly larger, and shows off a newly designed front end.  Along with the front end changes, there will be a new option of solar panels on the roof of the car that will be used to generate electricity to power the Prius' air conditioning system.  Also, a new motor will be unveiled, one that is 1.8 liter four cylinder, that increases output by 40 horsepower.  Even though the engine will be more powerful, it's reported to also get better fuel economy, which for the prius, is a win-win situation.

Toyota’s Prius outsells demand.

After selling only 15,000 units of the Prius in 2001, Toyota can't keep up with demand anymore.

This year, 180,000 units of the Prius have been sold, and Toyota expects the demand to continue even though they are exceeding their production capacity.  Roll along to 2010, and Toyota plans to start building the third generation Toyota Prius in a Mississipi Plant thats currently makes the Toyota Highlander SUV's.  The third generation Prius will be shown to the public at the Detroit auto show in January 2009, and available for sale shortly after.  The price of the Prius increased $550 this year, and another increase of $500 is planned for the 2009 model year, bringing the base price of the Toyota Prius up to $21,500.