Toyota Prius News
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Gas prices are going up, smaller cars are better than ever, and once again, U.S. car buyers are turning their sights toward higher gas mileage. For that, there's nothing that beats the 2011 Toyota Prius, with its 50-mpg combined EPA rating. But will that Prius hold up? Will the battery pack and electric components work properly after the shine has worn off? It's a valid question, and one that Consumer Reports considered recently when they reported on a 2001 Prius that had covered more than 200,000 miles. Now the magazine covers another high-mileage Prius, this one the far more numerous...
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Dollar-A-Gallon Gasoline? Yep, Briefly, One Day In LA (Video)Even if some of us suspect that cheap gasoline may never come back for good ... well, we can dream, right? In the face of national gas prices averaging $4 a gallon, and fillups that can cost three figures, several hundred lucky drivers in Los Angeles hit the jackpot yesterday morning: They paid...
John Voelcker -
The Ultimate Guide: Toyota Prius Battery Life, Cost, and WarrantyLike many articles, this one started with a reader question. Casey Krakowiecki wrote: I'm interested in buying a new Toyota Prius hybrid. I hope you can answer a couple of questions that will help me. (1) Are the rechargable batteries guaranteed for 8 years? If they fail at 7 years and 11 months...
John Voelcker -
Feds To Mandate Up To 62 MPG By 2025; What Does It Mean For You?Two days ago, the NHTSA said that it would require annual gas-mileage improvements of somewhere between 2 and 7 percent each year between 2017 and 2025. Corporate average fuel economy requirements have already been set through 2016, an action facilitated by the Obama Administration soon after...
John Voelcker -
Forget The Prius, Renault Cannes Chauffeur Celebrities TooFor most Hollywood A-List celebrities the choice of how to arrive at premieres and film festivals has been almost as big a decision as what to wear. Now Hollywood A-list celebrities have one less thing to worry about courtesy of French automaker Renault, which is providing ten of its all-electric...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Will Japanese Power Problems Mean Fewer 2011 Toyota Prius Cars?World supplies of the highly popular Toyota Prius hybrid could be further threatened by new electric power problems in Japan. The Japanese government requested on Friday, May 6, that the Hamaoka nuclear power plant system shut down all of its reactors, which supply to the central Japanese power...
George Parrott -
In about a year’s time Toyota will launch the long-awaited plug-in hybrid version of its top-selling Prius, selling it alongside the regular version of the Prius that’s already available today. According to a new report from Japan’s Nikkei business daily, however, Toyota may make plug-in hybrid the standard option for the Prius by as early as 2014. By that time, the cost of the technology is expected to come down significantly, and with its superior gas mileage, plug-in hybrid technology will eventually negate the need for conventional hybrid technology in vehicles like the...
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Why Californians Need A Parking Permit To Charge Electric CarsNo one knows the ins and outs of electric-car usage like the early adopters, especially those who've already taken delivery of a 2011 Nissan Leaf or a 2011 Chevrolet Volt. (Or both.) So when a thread on required parking permits to recharge electric cars erupted in our recent article on the opening...
John Voelcker -
Want A 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid? Register Online NowIt's been a long time coming, but by June of next year, the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid will go on sale in the U.S. If you're eager to be one of the very first on your block to own the world's most popular hybrid vehicle--but you insist on being able to plug it into grid power--now is your...
John Voelcker -
Would Your Granny Buy A 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid? (Video)It's all about video these days. We do video here at GreenCarReports (discussing whether a 2011 Chevy Volt will save you money, for instance) and so do many other automotive sites. But we have to admit, we never thought about bringing grandmothers into the picture. Which is exactly what Kyle...
John Voelcker -
U.S. Toyota Prius Sales Top One-Million MarkToyota announced today that it's sold more than one million of its Toyota Prius hybrid vehicles. The Prius went on sale in the U.S. market nearly eleven years ago, and while it wasn't the first hybrid on sale here—that title would go to the original Honda Insight two-seater—it has...
Bengt Halvorson -
Want To Clean Up The Planet? Spay Your Pet, THEN Buy a PriusCutting carbon emissions is complex. And there are a lot of myths and misinformation out there. The effective impact of some actions--reusing your grocery bags, for instance--is relatively low. Other methods, things that many people never even consider, are considerably more effective. For...
John Voelcker -
One way for potential buyers to get familiar with electric cars is to rent one. Several rental companies, among them Enterprise, have announced plans to rent 2011 Nissan Leaf and other electric models at selected locations. Renting an electric car lets you spend far more time in one than the typical short demonstration drive a dealer might offer, if your local Nissan dealer even has a 2011 Leaf to use as a demonstrator in the first place. Enterprise has announced plans to offer the 2011 Leaf at outlets in Phoenix, Tucson, Knoxville, Nashville, San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle as...
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2011 Denver Auto Show: Toyota Displays CNG-Powered and Plug-In Hybrid ConceptsThis year’s 2011 Denver Auto Show (DAS) has a lot to offer consumers from demonstrations to manufacturer ride and drives to concept vehicles that will “fuel the future.” Wednesday marked the opening of the largest Denver Auto Show in history at some 500,000 sq. ft and it also...
Jonathan McGrew -
Who Knew? A Car Battery Is the World's Most Recycled ProductA concern raised over upcoming electric-drive cars--the all-electric 2011 Nissan Leaf, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, and the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid--is what happens to their lithium-ion battery packs once the car's life ends. Images of those battery packs tossed over cliffs or littering...
John Voelcker -
Video: Toyota Prius Cranks Up The Crazy With Two Record-Breaking DaysSpring has sprung for the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In. The highly anticipated hybrid recently began making the rounds with critics, so it's not surprising that Toyota chose the end of this month to tout the Prius brand by hosting a live, two-day event in which four Prii will be put through a number...
Richard Read -
2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In: DrivenWhen the Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid goes on sale about this time next year, it will be the first mass-production vehicle from Toyota that plugs in. Yet, despite that, the Plug-In feels more like a value-added version of the Prius than a model that will be itself iconic or radically new. It's...
Bengt Halvorson -
2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In: By The Numbers, Would It Work For You?Over six days of driving—limited to around-town trips—we put about 103 miles on a fleet-test Toyota Prius Plug-In, averaging 90.8 miles per gallon. In that time, we gave the Prius Plug-In five full charges and two partial ones, and according to the trip computer, we covered 77.7 miles...
Bengt Halvorson -
For those who travel very short distances, the Toyota Prius Plug-In could almost be thought of as an electric car. With a battery pack that's about 5 kW-hr—many times that of the standard Prius—it can, within reason travel at highway speeds on electric power alone, or up to 14 miles or so as an EV. Not quite, actually, but almost. First, you only have an EV as long as you're willing to watch the dash displays and not press on the accelerator too hard; and second, even if you're really careful about driving style, and even if you have the Plug-In switched to Eco Mode, the gasoline...
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Elusive Cheapest Toyota Prius I Model Remains UnavailableGas prices are rising, so you'd think that the 2011 Toyota Prius hybrid would be the car of the moment. But with car production halted in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami, Prius supplies are already growing tight. And Toyota is hardly helping the thriftiest buyers, those who want only a...
John Voelcker -
Toyota Total For Hybrid Vehicles Passes 3 Million & CountingLate last month, Toyota announced that it had delivered its 3-millionth hybrid-electric vehicle, with 3.03 million sold as of February 28. Of that total, almost 2.2 million were the company's dedicated hybrid Prius model, now in its third generation. The 1997 Toyota Prius four-door sedan was one of...
John Voelcker -
Drive Report: BYD F3DM, Chinese Plug-In Hybrid Needs WorkChinese auto giant BYD is one of the world’s leaders in the field of hybrid vehicles, having been the first in the market with a mass-produced plug-in hybrid back in 2009--albeit in China only--and now with several small fleets of plug-in hybrid models here in the U.S. These are small-scale...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Barrier To Buying Green: Electric Cars And Hybrids ConfusingThink car buyers understand what a hybrid is, or a plug-in electric car? Think again. A new survey conducted by research firm Synovate finds that many of almost 1,900 new-car "buyers and intenders" don't understand how hybrid vehicles work. Worse, most of them don't seem to understand how...
John Voelcker -
You'll Pay $700 More For Gasoline This Year (If You're Average)According to the Department of Energy, the average U.S. household will pay $700 more for gasoline this year than it did in 2010. In a weekly review of the oil market, the department's Energy Information Administration noted that prices will rise at least 10 cents more over the current national...
John Voelcker