Toyota Prius News
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Over the past few years, Toyota has run some pretty unusual ad campaigns for its range of Prius Hybrids, from the cute Harmony TV spot through to the mildly disturbing People Person creation and the downright hilarious Cleaner Than-A-Sheep print ad. Now the Japanese automaker wants you to don walking boots, safari hat, grab your binoculars and head over to its Prius Kingdom, where Toyota Priuses run wild in a fairytale world filled with green trees, lush grass and ne’er a traffic jam. “In nature, every species must evolve to survive,” says the enthusiastic voiceover as a...
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San Francisco: Twice As Many Taxis Burn Half As Much Gas; Here's How
In the past 15 years, the city of San Francisco has doubled the numbers of taxi cabs on its streets, up from 750 vehicles in 1997 to 1,500 this year. But thanks to incentives designed to get taxi operators behind the wheel of greener cars, 92 percent of San Francisco’s taxi fleet are either...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2012 Toyota Prius C So Popular In Japan, Toyota Ups Production
Toyota’s all-new compact hybrid -- the 2012 Prius C -- isn’t due to go on sale for another few months, but that hasn’t stopped it from being an instant hit in its native Japan. Known as the 2012 Toyota Aqua in Japan, the gas-sipping hybrid has proved so popular that Toyota has...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Nissan Transports 2012 Leafs With Solar-Powered Hybrid Ship
Toyota might be the world’s largest hybrid automaker, but that isn’t stopping rival Japanese automaker Nissan from trying to become the world leader in hybrid electric car transporter ships. Its latest ship, announced on Tuesday this week, puts it ahead in the race to have the greenest...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2012 Toyota Prius Vs 2012 Toyota Camry: Economy Or Speed?
If you've been following over the last few weeks, you'll have seen us pitch two cars from particular manufacturers against each other. While there are often clear differences between the models, the exercise highlights what someone in the market at a particular price point can expect, when...
Antony Ingram -
2012 Prius Plug-in Hybrid: 95 MPGe. 2012 Chevy Volt: 94 MPGe. Game On?
Japanese automaker Toyota has fired a warning shot across General Motors’ bow today with a revised set of gas mileage figures for the soon-to-be-launched 2012 Prius Plug-in Hybrid. Announced by Toyota Division Group Vice President and General Manager Bob Carter, official economy figures in...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
According to the ninth annual Avoider study published yesterday by J.D. Power and Associates, many car-buyers avoid green cars because they’re too small, look strange, or cost too much. As we’ve previously found from other recent surveys, gas mileage proved to be the number one influencer of car choice in the study, replacing reliability, purchase deals and exterior styling from previous years. But while gas mileage now helps car buyers make their new car purchase decisions, J.D. Power says that many new car buyers avoid cars like the 2012 Chevrolet Volt because it costs too much...
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It's Not Easy Being Green: Solar Windows 1, Prius 0
A southern California Prius owner learned the hard way that energy-efficient building windows can reflect enough sunlight to melt plastic.
Kurt Ernst -
U.S. DoT Sued For Toyota Prius Unintended Acceleration Documents
Five days ago, when we told you the National Academy of Sciences was backing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s findings into unintended acceleration issues concerning Toyota Priuses, we speculated it wouldn’t be the last we’d hear on the matter. Now an American...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2012 Toyota Prius C Manual Leaked: Here’s What It Tells Us
You’d think after scans of the complete Japanese-specification 2012 Toyota Prius C brochure leaked onto the Internet, Toyota would be a little more careful about information surrounding its upcoming subcompact hybrid. But a few days ago popular Prius fansite PriusChat discovered that the...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Boulder, Colorado, Loves Hybrids As Much as Los Angeles
Ask most Americans to name a place in the U.S. where hybrid cars are popular, and they’ll probably name somewhere in California, the Pacific Northwest, or Washington D.C. Now the city of Boulder, Colorado is keen to let the world know it also wants to be known for its hybrid-loving...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Take One Toyota Prius, Make Less Aerodynamic, Sleep In It
Japan produces a huge number of incredibly talented cars. You'll be well used to many of them on Green Car Reports, as cars like Toyota's Prius and Nissan's Leaf are regulars on these pages. The country also has a good line in the incredibly bizarre. You know the kind - cars that could originate...
Antony Ingram -
It may have only gone on sale at the end of October 2011, but Toyota has just announced it managed to sell 8,399 Toyota Prius V Wagons before the start of 2012. In other words, it sold 668 more 2012 Prius V wagons in 2011 than Chevrolet sold Volts, but 1,335 less than the Nissan Leaf. Starting at just $27,100, the Prius V combines the same 1.8 liter gasoline engine and Hybrid Synergy Drive system found in the 2012 Toyota Prius hatchback with a taller and longer rear. The result? A wagon that can swallow 34 cubic feet of cargo behind the rear seats and offer fuel economy of 44 mpg city and 40...
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Toyota Prius GT300 Race Car Shown At Tokyo Auto Salon
"Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" is a quote that succinctly explains the marketing importance of racing for carmakers. Whether it's as relevant today as it was back in the 1960s, when you could go into a showroom and buy something superficially identical to the car you'd seen win the previous day...
Antony Ingram -
Hyundai Gives 2012 Sonata Hybrid Battery A Lifetime Warranty
What happens if the battery in your hybrid car starts to fail? If your car is still within warranty, you’ll get a replacement battery at no cost to you. If your car or its battery pack are out of warranty, you’ll have a few other options. But South Korean automaker Hyundai is now so...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2012 Toyota Prius C: 50-MPG Subcompact Hybrid For $19K, Detroit Auto Show Details
Toyota officially launched the 2012 Prius C compact hybrid hatchback at the Detroit Auto Show. The new car adds a fourth member to the expanding family of Prius hybrid vehicles and takes the base price for a Toyota hybrid below $20,000 for the first time. While the car is considerably smaller than...
John Voelcker -
Life After Death: What Happens When Your Prius Battery Dies
Believe it or not, the humble Toyota Prius has been on sale in the U.S. for 12 years. While many of these original 2000 Priuses are still giving their owners the same gas milage they did when new, traction battery packs inside early cars are reaching the end of their predicted 10 year, 300,000 mile...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Prius Cup Takes To Formula 1 Track For High-MPG Racing
Take a quick look at photograph of the line up of brightly colored race cars, complete with sponsor decals, crash-helmet-wearing drivers, and it looks like just another car race. But take your time, and you see something strange about the line of patiently-waiting race cars at the Fuji Speedway...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Toyota finally released the pricing and specifications of its 2012 Toyota Prius hatchback yesterday, increasing the starting price of the popular hatchback from $23,520 to $24,000. Coming with a redesigned front fascia, revised tail lamps, new 15-inch wheel covers and LED daytime running lights, the 2012 Toyota Prius is essentially the same car we’ve seen for the past two years, but subtly updated to make it look fresh alongside the new 2012 Toyota Prius V Wagon. Although made in five trim levels, the base-level Prius -- the $23,015 Prius One -- will only be available to fleet buyers...
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Five Holiday gift Ideas For Hybrid Car Drivers
There’s just over one week left until Christmas, so we hope you’ve done most of your gift shopping to spare you that last-minute holiday rush. But have you got a present for your favorite hybrid car driver? Last week, we told you about our Five Holiday Gift Ideas For Electric Car...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Five Reasons Hybrid Cars Are Finally Sexy
Look back a few years, and you’d be forgiven for thinking the only people who wanted to drive a hybrid car were celebrities, leaf-leaning liberals and electric car advocates who couldn’t buy a production electric car. Most of them would have driven the 2004-2009 Toyota Prius -- a car...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Toyota Prius, Honda CR-Z Rumored To Take Part In GT300 Racing Series
Think of Japan’s Super GT Series, and you probably think of highly-tuned race car versions of rear-wheel drive production cars. But in in the 2012 GT300 class, the traditional image of GT race cars could be challenged by not one, but two hybrid cars. As MotorAuthority reported yesterday...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2012 Toyota Prius C Compact Hybrid: 2011 Tokyo Motor Show Debut Live Gallery
Among the concept cars and pre-production prototypes being unveiled at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show this week, there were a handful of production-ready cars quietly making their public debut. Among them was Toyota’s 2012 Prius C hybrid hatchback. Smaller than the 2012 Prius, the 2012 Prius C...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Where Do Hybrid, Electric Cars Sell Best? We Find Out
While hybrid and electric cars are becoming more popular throughout the U.S., it isn’t a secret that buyers in some areas are more keen to buy a hybrid or electric car than others. Now NPR has published an interactive map detailing just where electric and hybrid cars have proved popular this...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield