Toyota Prius News

  • The iconic Toyota Prius was the car which started the hybrid revolution. Offering fuel economy that very few other gasoline cars could hope to achieve, it has been loved by politicians, movie stars and wannabe greenies for over ten years. Although Toyota improved its hybrid drivetrain for the 2010-11 Toyota Prius to give even better gas mileage, the aging platform - soon to be a brand in its own right - is struggling to defend its green image against eco newcomers like the 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Chevrolet Volt. Toyota’s solution? Turn the popular Prius into a plug-in hybrid, capable...

  • 2011 Toyota Prius
    Toyota Tops List Of Green Brands, VW & Honda Close Behind

    Toyota has had a bumpy ride the past couple of years, thanks in no small part to a high-profile series of safety recalls. To make matters worse, its popular Prius was recently lost its #1 spot on the EPA's list of fuel-efficient cars. But not to worry: the automaker just landed atop a different...

  • 2011 Toyota Prius
    EPA Says Toyota Prius Hybrid No Longer 'Most Fuel-Efficient'

    Ask Americans about fuel-efficient cars, and many will name the iconic Toyota Prius hybrid, with gas mileage rated by the EPA at a combined 50 miles per gallon. So you'd expect the EPA to rank the Prius as the best midsize car on its list of Most and Least Fuel Efficient Cars, right? It's not...

  • Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid prototype, tested in November 2010
    Will 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Get Us Used To Plugging In?

    Last week, Toyota said it expects to sell 16,000 or more 2012 Prius Plug-In Hybrid models in the U.S. next year, once the car is launched (in June or before). For all intents and purposes, it's a standard Toyota Prius hybrid with a larger battery pack that uses lithium-ion cells. The car can be...

  • Environmental Working Group 'Meat-Eater's Guide'
    When Did Cars Become The Yardstick For Measuring Pollution?

    If you've ever visited a museum or a manufacturing plant, you've probably heard a tour guide say something like this: "And if you laid all these bottles end-to-end, they'd stretch clear across the state of Kansas!" Through time and repetition, certain comparisons have become standardized, so that...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf
    Nissan, Mitsubishi, Toyota Turn Electric Cars Into Backup Batteries

    Ask most people which car would be best to have in a disaster and they’re likely to name something like a Humvee. While the now deceased gas-guzzling Humvee be good for navigating through deserted streets and clearing obstacles in the road it can’t help you cook a meal. But it turns out...

  • 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Drive  -  March 2011

    Toyota may have started the hybrid revolution with its original Prius, the first mass-produced gasoline-electric hybrid car and the vehicle which quickly became the eco badge of honor for celebrities and city dwellers alike. But ten years after the first Prius rolled into the U.S., Toyota is now playing green car catchup, with its 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid. We’ve had a chance to drive this car quite a bit over the past year, doing everything from extended test drives through to six days of simulated town commuting in an effort to see how Toyota’s answer to the 2011...

  • 2012 Toyota Prius V station wagon, Half Moon Bay, CA, May 2011
    Prius Shortages Will End For 2012, Sales Will Rock, Toyota Says

    It's been a tough couple of years for Toyota. First was the entire sudden-acceleration mess, along with multiple recalls covering almost 10 million cars. Then came the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which devastated Toyota's intricate global network of parts and assembly plants. But with a return...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf
    2011 Nissan Leaf Generates Constant Buzz: Musicians Beware!

    The Leaf generates massively more and constant high frequency sound feedback

  • 2011 Toyota Prius with PLUS Performance Package
    Toyota Adds Prius Plus Performance Package To Hot Up Hybrid Handling

    Pretty much every Toyota Prius hybrid you see on the streets looks the same. Wild customization is generally limited to personalized plates that promote the driver's green credentials, solar panels, eco-living, or general hybrid luv-luv-LUV. That's about to change. Toyota announced today it will...

  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency adminstrator Lisa Jackson and President Barack Obama
    White House, Feds To Push For 56.2-MPG Fuel Economy In 2025

    The two Federal agencies that set gas mileage and emissions standards for future cars may propose rules that require corporate average fuel economy to reach 56 miles per gallon by 2025. News reports out of Washington, D.C., indicate that the Obama Administration is urging the EPA and NHTSA to push...

  • 2011 Toyota Prius
    Never Fear, More Priuses Will Be Here! Or Not. It Depends

    If you want to buy a new 2011 Toyota Prius hybrid these days, you may have to scramble. Supplies are down to 3,000 units, which is less than 10 days' worth of sales. In auto industry terms, that means "sold out," and dealers are charging higher markups on the few precious Priuses they still have...

  • How A Hybrid Works, infographic used courtesy of AutoMD - cropped version

    As we've said before, we love infographics. Some of our favorites come from AutoMD, which did the one we ran two weeks ago on rising gas prices and simple ways to boost your gas mileage. Now they've tackled the perennial question: How does a hybrid car work? Specifically, they dissect the third generation of Toyota Prius, launched in 2010 as the followup to the very successful 2004-2009 model. The infographic lays out the various mechanical components, explains how they work together, and shows how otherwise wasted energy is recaptured via regenerative braking and used to charge a battery...

  • Gettin' real in the Whole Foods parking lot. Image: Fog and Smog Films
    Whole Foods Plus Prius Equals New Westside LA Hybrid Rap

    The phrase "west side of LA" conjures images of the surf at Malibu, high-dollar real estate and, on the grittier side, the gangs from the bad old days of Venice Beach. Park those images next to the little video below from Smog and Fog Films. On the west side, apparently even mock-gangster rappers...

  • 2011 Toyota Prius
    After 11 Years, Two-Millionth Hybrid Car Sold In United States

    Sometime early last week, someone somewhere in the U.S. bought a hybrid car. And while we may never know exactly who that person was, the car was the 2-millionth hybrid-electric vehicle sold here since the very first Honda Insight went on sale in late 1999. Industry trade journal Ward's Auto...

  • Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid prototype, tested in November 2010
    Toyota Fixes Quirks On Upcoming 2012 Prius Plug-In Hybrid

    The 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid isn’t set to go on sale until early next year, but we already know quite a lot about the car. This is mostly thanks to the fleet of Prius Plug-In Hybrid prototypes running around the country, an early version of which we drove back in 2010. However, some...

  • Auriga Leader hybrid cargo ship
    How To Send Hybrid Cars From Japan? Diesel-Hybrid Cargo Ship, Of Course

    In this day and age, when it comes to being green, looking at the end result is never enough. You have to take a life cycle approach to assessing how green something is, which in the case of cars, means looking at how they are manufactured and delivered to your driveway. Unfortunately, most cars...

  • GE Solar Park
    More Sites Install Solar Carports For Electric-Car Charging

    It's the green ideal: Charging an electric car or plug-in hybrid using electricity generated purely from the sun. But it's not fiction; a handful of large, multi-space solar carports are popping up in areas as diverse as Silicon Valley, New York City, Detroit, and Tennessee. The latest one...

  • 2001 Toyota Prius

    Toyota has issued a recall notice for its very earliest hybrids, the 2001 through 2003 Prius sedan models. The company will replace the pinion-shaft attachment nuts in the electric power steering box, which could loosen over time if the wheel is "repeatedly and strongly turned" to the full-lock position, Toyota said. Drivers with loose nuts may notice that the effort required to turn the wheel to the left has increased over time. Once owners return their 2001-2003 Toyota Prius models to the dealership, mechanics will install improved nuts in the steering box. The work will be performed at no...

  • Members of Deeplocal work on the Toyota Prius 'Charged Life' project
    Making Music With A Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid & Unattended Baggage

    About a year and a half ago, Scion launched a new webmagazine called ScionAV. The goal? To engage potential Scion shoppers (i.e. Millennials) on lifestyle topics like music, film, and fashion. It's the way marketing works in the Social Media Age: you don't just talk to customers in showrooms, you...

  • 2011 Toyota Prius
    Toyota Prius Gas Mileage

    The 2011 Toyota Prius hybrid gets the best gas mileage rating of any car for sale in the U.S. market today. It's rated at 51 mpg city, 48 mpg highway, for a combined rating of 50 mpg--and that's a number no other car can match. At least, no other car that doesn't plug into the wall for some (2011...

  • 2010 Honda Insight
    Why Haven't Hybrid Sales Been Higher, And Should They Be?

    Hybrid cars seem to bring out strong beliefs among car buyers, both pro and con. On the pro side, they get better gas mileage, offer some small degree of all-electric running, and let buyers display (to varying degrees) their green credentials. On the con side, they're usually pricier than...

  • Estella Warren
    Toyota Prius: Estella Warren's Weapon Of Choice

    Here is what we know about Estella Warren from her Wikipedia page: • She is a fashion model, with a portfolio that includes work for Victoria's Secret, Chanel, Vogue, and Vanity Fair. • She is a swimsuit model, which is like being a fashion model, except the fashion is less important...

  • 2010 Toyota Prius
    You’ve Got a Friend in Me: Toyota’s Electric Car Social Media Network

    Any press relations firm will tell you that in the modern world companies need an active Internet and social media presence in order to best sell a product, but what if you could go one step further and create your own social media network? That’s exactly what Toyota is planning, with the...

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