When I called Toyota’s new Aqua / Prius C affordable compact hybrid first a “gamechanger,” then an “engineering feat,” this attracted the attention of self-styled jargon vigilantes. They demanded equal platitudes to be bestowed on domestic models. In the meantime, the Japanese game changer threatens to change Toyota’s best laid plans: It sells ten times better than expected.
As anticipated, Toyota debuted the Prius c subcompact at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week to “complete the Prius family” when it becomes available in March.
Pricing will start at “under $19,000,” and it offers an EPA estimated mileage rating of 53 mpg in the city – which Toyota says is the “highest rated city fuel economy of any vehicle without a plug.” Highway mileage is 46 mpg, and the combined rating is 50 mpg,
Toyota has announced updates to its best-selling Prius line for next year, including a moderate uptick in price.
This week Toyota announced incremental price increases for the Prius Liftback ranging from 2 percent to 4.3 percent.
Formerly known as the “regular Prius,” the car which is now the progenitor of a growing sub brand for the Japanese automaker will start at $24,000 for the Prius Two and range to $29,805 for the Prius Five.
Today, Toyota started Chinese production of its third gen Prius hybrid. The car is being assembled at Toyota’s joint venture plant with FAW in frigid Changchun in China’s northern Jilin Province. Sales of the vehicle will begin in early 2012.
Toyota's big talk about hybrids is no greenwash. According to a report in Automotive News, the carmaker plans to as much as double the number of hybrids it sells in North America by 2015, to 400,000 vehicles per year.
An early preview of the Prius C was leaked this week by a Japanese car fan who scanned pages from a domestic brochure and sent them to an online magazine.
While not surprising, it is less flashy than the concept shown earlier this year, and the U.S. is expecting to see its own production version early next year.
We don’t know what changes might be made between the Japanese market version and North American (aside from the obvious switch to left side drive).
In the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake, stories began to emerge of hybrid vehicle owners using their cars to power appliances and cook food when power was cut off for hours or even days at a time. Now, several manufacturers are reportedly working to add electrical output capacity to their hybrid and plug-in and vehicles.
Toyota says its recovery is moving along ahead of schedule and that the Prius will be back to full production by September of this year.
What is a better way to transport Toyota hybrids from Japan? A hybrid ship, of course– at least that is the hope for those endeavoring to cut costs, pollution and fuel consumption from an otherwise wasteful process. This month, Toyota will begin shipping its hybrid vehicles via a floating experiment examining the viability of innovative technologies in shipping called the Auriga Leader. Since 2009, the ship has received a healthy trickle of juice from 328 solar cells. Now it has been fitted with large nickel-hydrogen batteries to offset the massive energy consumption of its diesel engines.
Next month a Wisconsin Toyota dealer hopes to post a new record for putting on the world’s longest hybrid parade featuring as many as 500 hybrid vehicles. Any make or model of production hybrid will be welcome at the Hybrids on Parade (HOP) event, being sponsored Sunday, July 24, by Smart Motors of Madison. The goal is to actually be recorded as a new Guinness World Record™ for longest hybrid vehicle parade.
A week-and-a-half ago, we posted some of the web’s first images of the Prius V, Toyota’s new larger version of the quintessential hybrid vehicle. Last week, we spent a few hours behind the wheel and can summarize the experience with two simple words: Mission Accomplished. We gave the vehicle a hard drive around Half Moon Bay’s hills and coastal road, mostly using standard mode—rather than Power, Eco or EV—and found it almost impossible to bring the average mileage below 40 mpg. Other media teams were gentler and easily beat the 44 mpg estimated average. Still, we wonder if Prius can keep all its mojo as it adds more vehicles to its lineup.
Since the earliest days of the Toyota Prius, the quintessential hybrid has served as a badge of honor for eco-friendly driving. Now, Toyota is commemorating the 1 million Prius owners in the United States by literally issuing badges to more than 10,000 Prius owners.
The 2011 Toyota Prius has been a big-seller so far this year. Sales are already up 51.5 percent in the first three months of 2011. Rising gas prices will put the quintessential hybrid in even greater demand. The result is a return of waiting lists for the 50-mpg Prius, and car buyers scrambling over to the used lot to see what’s available.
The blogosphere is a beast fed with lightning-fast news reports, and posts about the trendiest of latest trends. Yet, despite massive marketing efforts behind a wave of electric cars, like the Chevy Volt and Nissan LEAF, the conventional gas-electric Toyota Prius—which has been on the market since 2000—continues to dominate online chatter.
Here we go again: gas prices are spiking and sales of hybrid are zooming. The economics of buying a hybrid—more demand than supply—also mean that popular models, like the Toyota Prius, will cost a bit more. Given these trends, it’s a great time to revisit our expert guide to maximizing mpg in a Toyota Prius—so that new and existing Prius owners can make the most of their hybrid investment.
Auto assembly plants escaped the brunt of the devastating Japanese earthquake, but supplies of hybrid cars and other fuel-efficient vehicles in the United States will be affected—as Japan comes to terms with damaged roads and infrastructure. Major Japanese automakers have plants in the United States to produce popular models that sell here, but the best-selling hybrids are manufactured in Japan. The timing for a disruption of distribution of hybrids comes at a time when high gas prices have produced greater demand for gas-electric cars and other small fuel-efficient vehicles.
In September, we relayed reports that Toyota is working on a hybrid version of the Yaris subcompact, to be manufactured in France as early as this spring. While that time line now seems ambitious—by about a year—Toyota has confirmed that it will unveil the Yaris Hybrid concept at the Geneva Motor Show next month.
After years of study and speculation, Toyota today unveiled two new Prius vehicles at the 2011 Detroit auto show. By the time all the curtains were opened, four Prius models were displayed on stage: the familiar 50-mpg hatchback model; the plug-in demo version with the same shape; a new larger model that goes on sale this year; and a small city concept Prius that promises to offer the best price and highest mpg of any hybrid on the market. In our exclusive interview with Doug Coleman, Toyota's Prius product manager, we learned that any one of these models could become a plug-in in the future.
American consumers bought more hybrid gas-electric cars in December than any other month in 2010. Sales tallied to 28,592, which is a 13.6 percent increase in hybrid sales compared to Dec. 2009—and a whopping 37 percent increase from November sales. The hybrid market continues to be dominated by one vehicle: the Toyota Prius. When you exclude pick-up trucks and SUVs, the Prius was the eighth most popular vehicle in the U.S. in December.
Toyota will unveil a family of Priuses at next week’s Detroit auto show—but that’s just the beginning of its big plans for the quintessential hybrid. The company is planning to make Prius its top-selling line of vehicles by the end of this decade. “We will end the decade with Prius being the number one nameplate in the industry,” said Bob Carter, Toyota's group vice president for U.S. sales, in a Bloomberg report.
Next month, Toyota will unveil a minivan-like larger Prius at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show. To create a groundswell of buzz around the vehicle, the company started teasing images of the new model in October, on the 10th anniversary of the Toyota Prius arriving to the United States. Making sense of that image, and one that followed in November, required Prius fans to assemble jigsaw puzzle pieces—first on a giant billboard, then on the PriusChat.com website, and now distributed to “the most influential people in the Prius community.” Guess what? HybridCars.com has one of the pieces.
Just as the new electric vehicles are hitting the roads, the benefits of the Toyota Prius conventional hybrid are being reexamined. Some are arguing that the economic and environmental merits of the Prius are of equal or greater value than the Volt and LEAF.
After years of watching Toyota receive adulation for its ultra-green 50-mpg Prius, competing major automobile manufacturers finally are selling vehicles that take fuel-efficient motoring to a new level. Not missing a beat after delivering their first electric cars, executives from Nissan and General Motors in the past few days have thrown barbs at the Prius. “We commonly refer to the geek-mobiles as the Prius,” said Daniel Akerson, General Motors C.E.O., while speaking last week at the Economic Club of Wash., D.C. “And I wouldn’t be caught dead in a Prius.”
In two days, the first customer takes ownership of the all-electric Nissan LEAF. There’s no doubt that the imminent rollout of the LEAF, and the Chevy Volt, is a watershed event. At the same time, green car fans should have realistic expectations about how many of these EVs will hit U.S. roads in 2011. Combined sales of the LEAF and Volt—plus a few purchases and leases of the other plug-in cars—might optimistically add up to 50,000 units (aided by very generous government incentives). But what’s in store for this brave new automotive market, and how do we measure success?
Reuters is reporting today that Toyota will pay to fix about 650,000 Prius models due to a coolant pump glitch that could cause the hybrid to overheat and lose power. The repair campaign covers model years 2004 to 2007. Most of the cars, about 378,000 units, are in the United States. Toyota is apparently taking every precaution to protect the quality and safety reputation of its hybrids, as it prepares to increase the number of gas-electric cars on the market to 11 by 2012.
Toyota showcased a prototype of its highly anticipated new RAV4 EV at the Los Angeles Auto Show this week. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ocean, executives made a series of intriguing new announcements about its electric-drive vehicles.
Hybrid and electric car engineers go to great efforts to maximize the efficiency of drivetrains, components and vehicle design. What’s less known is that they require tire makers to create customized tunings of tires for specific vehicles. The Toyota Prius and Chevy Volt both come with the Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max, while the Nissan LEAF uses a Bridgestone Ecopia. “While the name on the sidewall says Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max for the Toyota Prius, it very well may be a very different tune on the Fuelmax used on the Chevy Volt,” said Woody Rogers, product information specialist, at Tirerack.com. In an audio interview, we talk tires with Woody.
After years of rumors about a family of Prius vehicles, Toyota announced it will unveil the Prius MPV at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show in January. Of all the directions that Toyota could have taken for its next Prius model, the company opted for more overall space, a higher roof, and a broader rear end with upright window—opening the possibility for third-row seats.
According to announcements made yesterday by Toyota Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada, the company plans to introduce six new hybrid vehicles by the end of 2012. Two of the new hybrids would be Toyota vehicles and two would be Lexus luxury models. The company did not spell out which models would be offered as hybrids—so we’ll make our predictions: RAV4 Hybrid, Yaris Hybrid, Sienna Hybrid, Corolla Hybrid, and two sporty Lexus hybrid models. Let's not forget the Toyota plug-ins coming soon.
Five months after the nation was gripped with fears about Prius brakes failing to engage and runaway hybrids flying out of control, federal investigators said Tuesday that driver error—not electronics—is to blame in a majority of safety cases they probed. The government results are not final or definitive, and critics are not convinced that the problem is resolved. Nonetheless, if further investigations continue to point to driver error rather than technical glitches, then it begs the question: What caused all the uproar?
Throughout 2008, Toyota said that it would start building the Prius at a brand-new plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi by the end of 2010. But by December 2008, the economic recession caught up with Toyota, which mothballed the factory. The facility is now coming back to life—to build Corollas not Priuses. The history of the Mississippi plant, and Toyota’s shifting production plans, speaks volumes about the recent ups and downs of the auto industry, gas prices, and electric-drive cars.
The Toyota Prius is by far the most popular hybrid car because it’s immediately recognizable as an earth-friendly car. At least, that’s the explanation offered by Dan Ariely, the behavioral economist who wrote Predictably Irrational. "When I drive and I see people driving Priuses, they look to me like they smile more than others," said Ariely. He explained that Prius drivers want to stand out, to pat themselves on the back as they drive down the road, and to make it crystal clear that they’re driving a hybrid.
It’s easy to look nostalgically at the Sprint, Metro, CRX and Suzuki Swift, and view that generation as some sort of heyday of fuel efficiency. But using a rose-colored rear view mirror has a blind spot: Those cars lacked most of the comfort, convenience and safety features—from power steering to automatic transmissions—that today’s car buyers see as absolutely essential.
Automotive Lease Guide, a leading provider of residual value information, sees three things in 2013: $4 a gallon gas, high residual values for hybrids and compacts, and low values for full-size SUVs. "Despite the recent drop in oil and gas prices, we are maintaining our long-term gas price forecast of over $4 per gallon in 2013," explained Matt Traylen, ALG's chief economist.
For more than year, we’ve heard rumors and hints about a family of Priuses. But we haven’t had any details about what a Prius SUV, minivan or compact car would look like—until now. Motor Trend is reporting that a slightly stretched Prius—badged as Alpha—is in the works.
The Japanese Nikkei business daily reported on Friday that Toyota will launch a Prius-badged hybrid minivan. Toyota is not officially confirming the story—so the timing and any other details should be taken with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, it’s exciting news for the four key reasons.
J.D. Power—the auto industry’s top source for information about vehicle dependability—yesterday reported that among compact cars, the Toyota Prius had the fewest numbers of problems experienced per 100 vehicles over the past three years. The announcement comes in the wake of new evidence that high-profile Prius accidents were caused by human error, not technical problems.
Myth #1: Toyota vehicles, like the Prius, put drivers at a high risk. Carnegie Mellon University Professor Paul Fischbeck, a risk expert, calculated the risk of driving a recalled Toyota and found that you are almost 20 times more likely to die while walking than driving a recalled Toyota. National Public Radio reported that you are 30 times more likely to get hit by lightning than to die in a crash involving a runaway Toyota. The other four myths involve misconceptions regarding how a speeding Prius can be stopped.
For the past several weeks, media and government officials have stirred widespread public concern about the safety of the Toyota Prius—publishing first and investigating later (if at all). But the truthfulness of the most publicized incident so far—what might be described as cross between the Balloon Boy Hoax and the OJ Simpson Highway Chase—is coming under increasing scrutiny. Sikes could be credited as the man who convinced the public to question if Prius safety questions are more hype than reality.
This week’s story of a San Diego man and his runaway Prius marks the turning point on when Toyota’s unintended acceleration issues crossed over into hysteria. While observers cast doubt on the truthfulness of the high-profile incident, more drivers have reported cases of Prius sudden acceleration. With each new report, there is a growing counter-movement that points to human psychology—rather than technical malfunctions—as an explanation.
James Sikes, a 61-year-old San Diego-based real estate executive, made national news this week when he claimed that his 2008 Toyota Prius sped out of control on California’s Interstate 8. The story was picked up by major national media and ricocheted around the Internet. Yet, inconsistencies in Sikes's story raise questions about the incident and the accuracy of media reporting on the story.
Overall Toyota sales fell 8.7 percent in February, but Prius sales increased by more than 10 percent.
In an unexpected turn of events, Toyota’s safety recalls could create a jump in hybrid sales. To counteract the effects of negative publicity, Toyota is offering a sale on the 2010 Prius: $249-a-month on a three-year lease. Some dealers are also increasing residual rates and dropping finance rates. To win customers from Toyota, Honda is offering similar deals on the Honda Insight.
Toyota executives were rebuked by Japanese government officials over the Prius recall in Japan. But on the first day or the announced recall of Toyota Priuses in the US, the reaction from hybrid owners has been remarkably muted. And most industry observers believe the recall will have little impact on sales of the Toyota Prius and other hybrids.
After several days of speculation, Toyota today issued a recall of the 2010 model year Priuses as well as Lexus HS250h luxury hybrid. Only the 2010 model year vehicles are involved because previous generations had different brake system software. The repair, which involves loading new anti-lock brake software onto the car, takes about 30 minutes to perform.
Coming at the heels of Toyota’s problems with sticking accelerator pedals, news of potential braking problems on the 2010 Toyota Prius and Lexus HS250h hybrid has raised legitimate concerns among hybrid owners. Yet, media coverage of Toyota’s safety issues may be blurring the lines between a potentially fatal problem with the accelerator pedals and the hybrid braking issues that may largely be based on perception.
Toyota acknowledged Thursday that it found software design problems with the antilock brake system on the 2010 model year Prius. The company corrected the problem in Prius models sold since late January. The company said it was still investigating how to inform people who had bought the 2010 model prior to January.
It took 10 years for Toyota to sell its first 1 million hybrids globally. It reached that milestone in June 2007, one decade after it began selling the first-generation Toyota Prius in Japan. The company now says it will achieve its long-standing goal of 1 million annual global hybrid sales by 2011.
Last year was the worst for auto sales in decades, but might be recorded in history as the breakthrough year for gas-electric hybrids and other small efficient cars. Connect the dots from global sales stats.
In the past, the Detroit auto show was all about theater. Pulsating music, fog machines, and sexy models. Some of that remains, but at this year’s show, starting next week, automakers are getting real. After years of spending millions of dollars on glitzy displays but fighting higher efficiency standards, car companies are finally putting their energies into the battle for leadership in advanced fuel-saving technology.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has recently received a few dozen complaints about the 2010 Toyota Prius’s braking performance. The Prius owners are complaining about a feeling that the car lurches forward when hitting a pothole or other uneven surfaces.
Toyota will introduce a small hybrid that could cost less and offer higher mileage than any other hybrid currently on the market. Detroit News reported last week that the Toyota subcompact hybrid will go into production in Japan in late 2011 and arrive in US showrooms in early 2012. The small hybrid could exceed 50 mpg.
Production of low-emission electric drive vehicles is no longer an interesting sideline for global automakers. It’s becoming the big show. Industry analysts—as well as consumers considering their next purchase—are now wondering which technology holds the most promise: Hybrids or Electric Cars?
Toyota said today it will reshape or replace accelerator pedals on 3.8 million vehicles—including 2004 to 2009 Priuses. The announcement expands the scope and expense of the recall, which was announced on Sept. 29. The step will be taken to reduce the risk that the pedal may be jammed in the floor mat. In addition, the company will replace original equipment floor mats with redesigned mats.
The annual SEMA show, the ultimate pimp-your-ride Las Vegas extravaganza, wrapped up last week. The crazy body mods, garish oversized wheels, onboard big screen TVs, and high-horsepower antics got us thinking about what aftermarket products make sense for our mild-mannered hybrids. Check out our top seven nominees for the top hybrid accessories.
At last week’s 2009 Poptech conference, author Michael Pollan made this claim: "A vegan in a Hummer has a lighter carbon footprint than a beef eater in a Prius.” Days later, Pollan, author of the bestseller Omnivore’s Dilemma, retracted the statement after researchers showed that Hummers are significantly more destructive to the environment than hamburgers.
Nine of the top 10 vehicles in the Environmental Protection Agency's fuel economy rankings for the 2010 model year are hybrid gas-electric vehicles—putting to rest any question about the technology’s ability to wring more miles from a gallon of gas.
Toyota said on Tuesday it will recall some 3.8 million vehicles, including the Toyota Prius, because of the risk a floor mat could keep the accelerator pedal forced down. As an immediate remedy, the Japanese automaker urged drivers of a range of recent models to remove driver's-side floormats until it could issue a recall in consultation with federal safety regulators.
Toyota is in the midst of its worst downturn since the company was founded in 1937—but it’s raising the price of the 2010 Toyota Prius by about $400. This apparent contradiction appears to be part of Toyota's core turnaround strategy: pump up the volume on marketing, and lead with the Prius.
The day after the Obama administration announced rules for tougher automobile fuel efficiency standards, conservative media pundit Glenn Beck ridiculed hybrid cars as undesirable and not worthy of tax incentives.
Toyota believes that lithium batteries do not justify the higher cost, and that current hybrid battery technology—nickel metal hydride—is best suited for conventional hybrids. The company came to that conclusion after conducting three years of “secret tests” on 126 Priuses equipped with lithium ion batteries, according to Bloomberg. “The problem with lithium is that it was overhyped,” said Jack Lifton, an expert in the raw materials that go into batteries.
It appears that every automaker in the world has caught electric car fever, save one: Toyota, the one best known for green cars. In an exclusive interview with HybridCars.com, Toyota product planners explain the company's position on electric cars.
A Seattle neighborhood website reported a "rash of attacks" against Toyota Priuses. But Seattle Police were only able confirm one incident. "It doesn’t appear at this point to be any sort of pattern,” Detective Mark Jamieson told HybridCars.com.
The Honda Insight and Toyota Prius received the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's “Top Safety Pick” award based on front, side, and rear crash testing. The rating dispels the myth that high fuel efficiency always requires a compromise in terms of safety.
As President Obama was yesterday announcing $2.4 billion in grants to produce the next generation of hybrid and electric cars in the US, Toyota was tallying record sales of today’s leading hybrid car, the Prius. The grants will support the deployment and trial of up to 6,873 plug-in hybrid or battery electric vehicles. Meanwhile, Toyota sold 19,193 Priuses in the United States in July.
With nearly all gas-electric hybrid cars qualifying for the Cash for Clunkers vouchers, hybrid sales in July grew to 3.55 percent of the new car market—its largest market share ever.
Toyota plans to launch a new $16,000 subcompact hybrid, according to a report in Japan’s Asahi newspaper. The car, expected in late 2011, will use the platform and engine of the Yaris subcompact—but will feature a unique name, design, and a hybrid system that is more cost-competitive than the company’s other hybrid models.
Toyota plans to begin commercial production of plug-in hybrids in 2012, producing between 20,000 and 30,000 units in the first year, according to Nikkei, the Japanese business daily. Toyota hopes to sell its plug-in hybrid for about $48,000. The swifter move toward plug-in hybrids contradicts recent statements from Toyota executives.
As Toyota ramps up Japanese production on the Prius and projects a seven-month wait for new orders, it is now anticipating a similar reaction to the U.S. release of the model and searching for local capacity to fill orders in the model’s largest market.
Toyota is boosting production—and the image—of its star hybrid, the Toyota Prius. As the company celebrates big sales numbers for the just-released third-generation Prius in Japan, it is also fighting a publicity campaign in the US against competing green car technologies.
Are hybrid cars shedding their nerdy image, and moving into the automotive and cultural mainstream? If the comic writers and producers at The Casual Mafia have anything to do with it, the answer is yes. Steve Lutsk, an actor in the company, said, “Hip-Hop music is flooded with lyrics about Escalades, Hummers and Benzes. We thought it would be funny to have a song about a car that many would consider to be polar opposite."
Japanese carmakers are widely recognized as leading exporters of hybrid cars to the United States. But their key strategic advantage may become their ability to sell hybrid gas-electric vehicles to Japanese consumers.
The dismal economy is forcing companies, and individuals, to make tough decisions about what is essential, and what can get tossed aside to save a buck. In the past, car companies might have shelved green car technologies as nice-to-have but too expensive and not really critical. However, this time around, the world’s major automakers are holding firm to plans for hybrid gas-electric cars, pure electric vehicles, and other fuel-saving programs.
Toyota has confirmed its plans to produce a smaller less expensive hybrid car. "We are developing a low-priced hybrid vehicle like Honda's Insight," said Akihiko Otsuka, chief engineer of the third-generation Toyota Prius. "We are going to compete by expanding our hybrid-vehicle lineup to smaller hybrids, in the class of the...Yaris.
Seventy-five-point-three miles to the gallon! That was enough to win the 2010 Toyota Prius fuel economy competition that stacked 28 auto journalists against one another in Yountville, Calif. Akihiko Otsuka, the chief engineer of the 2010 Prius, was on hand to watch the contestants break way past 50 mpg. The journalists averaged 69.9 mpg on the 33.8 course.
“Hybrid affordability” is the catch phrase for the week. Just days after Honda announced a base price of $19,800 for the new 2010 Honda Insight, making it the least expensive hybrid to be sold in the US, Japan’s Nikkei business daily reports that Toyota plans to counter with a cheaper new hybrid model of its own.
Toyota announced today that combined sales of Toyota and Lexus gas-electric vehicles in the United States topped the 1 million mark. This comes just one day after Ford announced that the 100,000th Ford hybrid SUV rolled off the assembly line of the company’s Kansas City assembly plant—and one month after Honda announced that it had sold more than 300,000 hybrids worldwide.
A new study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University says that plug-in hybrids with 40 miles of all-electric range are less cost-effective than hybrids with smaller battery packs. This follows other recent reports of disappointing mileage from plug-in hybrid testing fleets.
When gas prices spiked above $4 last summer, Toyota couldn’t keep up with demand for the gas-electric Prius. When the company begins selling the third-generation 2010 Toyota Prius in a few weeks, the price will be about half the level of last year’s peak. Does this worry Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA? That’s what we asked him last month in Detroit. See our exclusive video interview.
Toyota is probably preparing to roll out an advertising campaign to promote the new 2010 Toyota Prius. But based on our retrospective of the coolest, most outrageous and sometimes offensive Prius ads—real and spoofed—Toyota will have a tough time outdoing past commercials.
President Barack Obama will fulfill a campaign pledge today by telling the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider its rejection of California’s rules to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions. In practical terms, if the waiver is now granted, automakers will have to comply with new, more stringent rules that cut fuel consumption across the vehicles they sell in California and other states.
On January 12, 2009, Toyota unveiled the 2010 Toyota Prius to journalists at the Detroit Auto Show. That night, Toyota threw a party for 50 of the world's biggest Prius fans, who took their first look at the third-generation 2010 Toyota Prius. The Prius fans literally threw themselves at the vehicle, testing each feature, crawling underneath, and heaping praise on the new design.
In the first half of 2008, the Toyota Prius was selling like hotcakes. But sales considerably cooled off as gas prices dropped in the last months of the year. As a result, Toyota is now offering tried-and-true dealer incentives, and customer perks, to stimulate sales. This could be one of the best times to buy a Toyota Prius.
While major carmakers have dragged their heels on delivering the next big breakthrough on fuel efficiency, the plug-in hybrid, a small group of California entrepreneurs and innovators have made it possible for consumers to convert existing hybrids into plug-in cars running mostly on electricity. Yet, later this week, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is expected to adopt new regulations that could put many of those conversion companies out of business.
The 2010 Toyota Prius, officially unveiled this morning at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, will break the 50-mpg mark. The third-generation Prius is bigger and more powerful—but will become the only vehicle in the United States that offers combined mileage greater than 50 miles per gallon.
Toyota is secretly developing a car powered by solar cells mounted on the vehicle’s roof, according to a report today from Japan’s Nikkei newspaper. The report said the automaker hopes the vehicle will eventually be totally powered by the solar cells—but that would take many years.
Visual details of the 2010 Toyota Prius are revealed in a new video posted on YouTube. The video depicts Blue Man Group, the idiosyncratic trio of performers, exploring features of the redesigned quintessential hybrid.
Even the mighty Toyota Prius has fallen victim to economic chaos and plunging gas prices: Toyota said today it was postponing its plans to build the Prius at a new factory under construction in Blue Springs, near Tupelo, Mississippi—indefinitely.
The EPA and Energy Department this week issued its 2009 fuel economy guide. Hybrids, once again, dominate the top of the list with five of the six most efficient vehicles. The 2009 Toyota Prius is the leader with ratings of 48 mpg in the city and 45 on the highway.
Last week, HybridCars.com took a drive through Reykjavik in one of 10 hydrogen-fueled Toyota Prius hybrids, offered as part of Hertz’s Reykjavik rental fleet. Available for around $300 a day, the hydrogen-powered Priuses make for an intriguing drive through the spectacular landscapes around Reykjavik.
As new hybrids from Honda and General Motors vie for a future piece of the growing green car market, rumor has it that Toyota could counterpunch by launching a family of Prius-branded automobiles.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain has come under fire from the United Auto Workers over his daughter's Toyota Prius—and how exactly she paid for it. McCain originally told The New York Times that he had purchased the imported hybrid sedan for daughter Meghan, but recently changed his tune in an interview with a local Detroit newscast, saying that she "bought it, I believe, herself."
Toyota has always been a patient company that plans for the long term. After 10 years and countless billions of dollars, its efforts to dominate the market for hybrid cars continue to pay off.
Less than a month after a dealer starting taking deposits for delivery of plug-in hybrid Priuses, that dealer is now returning them to the customers. Toyota clamped down on the plan, which the dealer—Magnussen’s Toyota of Palo Alto, Calif.—said was simply a way of responding to customers who wanted to make sure they were first in line for the promised plug-ins.
Magnussen’s Toyota of Palo Alto, Calif., took the bold step of starting to take $500 deposits for 2010 plug-in Priuses—even before a grid-capable Prius has been announced as an official product. Eric Doebert, business development manager for Magnussen’s, said, "It makes sense that people should get in line now in order to have a shot of even taking delivery in the first year that the vehicle is available."
Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe told reporters in Tokyo yesterday that fleet tests of an experimental Prius, modified to be rechargeable, will be moved up to late next year from 2010. Bob Lutz, General Motors product czar, told reporters at a press event that its plug-in hybrid, the Chevy Volt, “wasn’t even comparable” to a Prius converted to plug into the electric grid. The race continues.
In recent years, the State of California has become the unofficial capital of plug-in hybrid technology. But proposed certification standards from the California Air Resource Board (CARB) could create an obstacle for small companies selling plug-in hybrid conversion kits.
In early July, various print and online media announced that Toyota would offer a rooftop solar panel as an option on the next generation Prius due in 2010. Some hybrid fans got excited about the possibility of on-board solar energy generation, while solar power and automotive experts cast the news aside as fluff.
The American automobile industry is very large and very complex. In a recent conference held in Las Vegas, David Kiley of BusinessWeek and Peter De Lorenzo of Autoextremist.com tried to make sense of it. They talked about cars that run on green beans, vapor and tinsel marketing, and dying roses.
A sobering reminder of the hazards in adding plug-in capabilities to hybrids comes from reports that a plug-in Prius conversion was destroyed in a fire. The news spread quickly through the online community of plug-in enthusiasts, bringing calls for all known information to be publicized as quickly as possible.
With gasoline topping $4 a gallon, hybrids are so hot that the auto industry can’t produce enough to satisfy demand. Carmakers point to a shortage of battery packs, but auto battery expert Menahem Anderman told HybridCars.com that the real shortage is a “shortage of planning.”
Despite the current mad rush for fuel-efficient vehicles, sales of the most popular hybrid car, the Toyota Prius, are unlikely to mushroom this year. In fact, most dealers in Toyota’s western region are out of stock. “Unless Toyota sends a lot more cars, we’re going to see Prius wait lists spin out again to about six months,” said Toby Parks, sales managers at Toyota of Berkeley, in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Unless you have limitless amounts of money to spend on gasoline, buying an SUV recently has proven to be a losing gamble on oil prices staying low. And the pain doesn't end at the pump—resale values of SUVs and light trucks have dropped precipitously with the increase in gas prices. Hybrid owners on the other hand, have seen their used Priuses' residual values go up just as dramatically as those of the gas-guzzlers have fallen.
For years, sporadic anecdotes about hybrid battery failures have been reported by individual hybrid drivers. But finally, the automakers are reporting the first numbers about the likelihood of batteries failing after the warranty expired.
This week, Toyota will raise the price of a few of its cars, including a $400 hike on the Toyota Prius and a bump on the Camry Hybrid by $300. But in the past four weeks, the average price of regular gasoline increased by almost 30 cents a gallon. Therefore, in actual ownership costs, the price of Toyota hybrids is cheaper this week than it was a month ago. Welcome to the new hybrid math.
After speaking with a “well-placed Toyota source,” Edmunds’s Auto Observer is reporting a few details about the third-generation Prius, due out in 2009. The quintessential hybrid will be bigger, faster, and more fuel-efficient.
When Jim Press was the top executive for Toyota USA, he said that the Japanese government never directly aided the company in the development of the Toyota Prius. Now, as president of Chrysler, he says that the Prius had 100 percent government backing. Why would Mr. Press flip-flop?
Toyota and Honda plan to significantly step up production in order to keep up with the global demand for hybrid vehicles.
A mock ad for the Toyota Prius depicts a hybrid driver soliciting the services of a prostitute. The clever piece of "culture-jamming" simultaneously mocks the self-righteous tendencies of hybrid drivers and subverts the do-good jingoism of corporations pushing their so-called green wares.
Lexus will introduce a hybrid wagon, based on the hybrid architecture of the next-generation Prius, at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, according to a report from Motor Trend.
California-based OEMtek says it can outfit a Prius with a bigger battery pack and double its fuel economy to more than 100 miles per gallon—for a cost of $12,500.
One of the industry’s top contenders in the race to manufacture more powerful next-generation batteries for the auto industry has integrated a lithium ion battery into a Toyota Prius. EnerDel, based in Indianapolis, Ind., exhibited the research vehicle with the new battery pack at the International Electric Vehicle Symposium (EVS-23) in Anaheim, California.
In an ironic twist, one of the cleanest running cars on the road, the Toyota Prius, is having trouble passing the Georgia emissions test. This problem was first reported in April, 2007. Prius owners have become dumbfounded and frustrated over the ordeal.
via Atlanta Journal-Constitution
November 28, 2007
Toyota unveiled visual design concepts for their next hybrids at the 2007 Geneva International Motor Show.
When an unknown musician becomes an overnight sensation with a runaway hit album, expectations for the follow-up release often rise to unrealistic levels. Toyota faces similar anticipation from loyal fans waiting for the next-generation Prius.
The Toyota Prius will be celebrating its 10th anniversary later this year. Looking back to the birth of the Prius, the engineers behind the vehicle were apprehensive about being able to achieve what appeared to be an impossible goal. But that task may be child’s play compared to the next 10 years for the Prius.
