Toyota Prius News
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The automotive market in Japan has very few similarities to the automotive market here in the States. Japanese buyers tend to select compact, fuel efficient vehicles whereas here in the states we still like gas guzzling, large vehicles. The difference between the buying habits of both nations is easy to see when you look at the best sellers for 2009. The best selling new model in Japan for 2009 was none other than the Toyota Prius. The Prius is one of the most efficient vehicles available. Toyota sold a shocking 208,876 Priuses in Japan, which is a 300 percent improvement over their...
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2010 Detroit Auto Show: The Confusing Wrongness of Electric AvenueOnly four electric vehicles really matter at the Detroit Auto Show: the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, the 2012 Nissan Leaf, and the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid, plus the current 2010 Tesla Roadster. They're on sale, or destined for volume production. The rest fall into two categories: low-volume...
John Voelcker -
2010 Detroit Auto Show: Toyota FT-CH Concept To Expand Prius LineToyota announced this morning that it would launch a family of Prius vehicles, and unveiled a concept vehicle at the Detroit Auto Show that may foreshadow the shape of a new Toyota Prius coupe. The FT-CH concept shows a possible shape for a highly aerodynamic compact hybrid (or CH) vehicle...
John Voelcker -
2010 Toyota Prius Is Best-Selling Car In JapanIn another sign that Toyota hit a home run with the third-generation Prius hybrid hatchback, the 2010 Toyota Prius was the best-selling car in Japan during 2009. It beat out the Honda Fit, followed by the Toyota Yaris (known in Japan as the Vitz), as well as its closest hybrid competitor, the new...
John Voelcker -
Green Car Sales: Winners and Losers of 2009It's beginning to look as if the worst is over for U.S. auto sales. The year that just closed was, in the immortal words of Queen Elizabeth II, an annus horribilis, with only 10.4 million vehicles sold, down 21 percent on 2008 and the lowest total since 1982. But some light seems to be appearing on...
John Voelcker -
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Maybe you're already overloaded with end-of-year lists. But indulge us; this is the weirdest collection of most-popular articles we could ever have imagined. We've got urine. We've got Muslims and ethanol. We've got hybrid Ferraris. We've even got our ever-popular rant on why Miles-Per-Gallon is a really, really stupid way to measure fuel efficiency. With no more ado, we present to you our list of the 10 most popular articles during the year 2009 on GreenCarReports.com. And a Happy New Year to you! # 10: 2011 Chevy Volt Investment: How Does This Differ From the EV1? We're surprised our...
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Toyota and GM Get Down To Brass Tacks On EV TechnologyVolt or Prius May Be the Big Question in 2010
Jonathan McGrew -
Toyota To Take More Heat: NHTSA Gets Prius Brake ComplaintsComplaints Roll In About the 3rd Generation Toyota Prius
Jonathan McGrew -
2010 Toyota Prius Prices Rise $400 On All ModelsThe prices of all five trim levels of the new 2010 Toyota Prius will rise next month by $400, or roughly 1.5 to 2 percent, reflecting increased costs and an unfavorable yen-dollar exchange rate. Toyota announced the changes on December 21, buried at the bottom of a lengthy press release on the...
John Voelcker -
EPA's Most Climate-Friendly Cars: All About Fuel EfficiencyThe dirty little secrets of Top 10 lists are in the methodology, as Forbes found out with its weirdly inaccurate "10 Dirtiest Cars" list. (It's the end of the year, so it's time for a lot of Top 10s.) But we see no such problems in the EPA Green Vehicle Guide, which rates vehicles not only on...
John Voelcker -
Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid On Sale in 2011, Less Than $10K MoreHigh Gear Media has partnered with Tesla Motors on a new writing contest where YOU can win a tour and road test of the 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport. You can submit as many articles as you like and enter multiple times. Enter now! == As a plug-in battle starts to take shape among the 2011 Chevrolet...
John Voelcker -
The Prius has won again, and this time the award is unexpected. The Top Gear team has named the 2010 Toyota Prius as the "City Car of the Year." Jeremy Clarkson, part of the Top Gear team, has not be fond of many "green" cars passing through his hands. As Clarkson is quoted as calling the Honda Insight "biblically terrible", the recent award for the Prius is a little surprising. In another review, Clarkson pretends to run out of electricity in a Tesla Roadster, poking fun at its somewhat limited range. Clarkson's dislike for "green" cars is apparent, but the rest of the Top Gear...
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Holiday Gift Guide: The Best Accessories For Your Toyota PriusThe huge SEMA show, mecca of car modifications from awful to awesome, now attracts even manufacturers, who commission custom versions of production cars in hopes that hotness will rub off on them. Even Toyota showed the Prius Aerius and Aemulus this year. But the real action is in the aftermarket...
John Voelcker -
2010 Toyota Prius Plug-In Launches, But You Can't Buy One NowHybrid and plug-in fans, not to mention the Prius faithful, have been eagerly waiting for Toyota's response to the reams of copy benerated by the 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle. Surely Toyota, which invented the modern hybrid vehicle and has now built 1.5 million Toyota Prius...
John Voelcker -
2010 Toyota Prius Plug-In Arrives Early Next Year, For Fleets OnlyWhile Toyota's press conference today at the Los Angeles Auto Show covered the new 2011 Toyota Sienna minivan, a very special Prius hybrid on the show floor signaled the company's first tentative step into the world of plug-in vehicles. Toyota will deliver the first of 150 Toyota Prius Plug-In...
John Voelcker -
2009 Los Angeles Auto Show: PreviewOnly a handful of U.S. auto shows count as important. Detroit, in January, is one; historically, New York in April has been another. But the up-and-comer is the Los Angeles Auto Show, which now occurs in late November or early December and focuses on green cars of all stripes: hybrids, electric...
John Voelcker -
November's Popular Green Car Posts: Prius Wagon, 2010 VW Golf TDISomehow it's December already--how many shopping days left?--so it's time to look at the most popular posts on GreenCarReports.com during the last 30 days. This month, just two are held over from October's most popular posts. The new winners include items on the possible new Toyota Prius hybrid...
John Voelcker -
Ford might need to upsize their trophy case for all the awards the new Fusion is winning. Just two weeks ago, the Fusion was awarded Motor Trend's golden calipers as the 2010 Car of the Year, beating out the Honda Insight, the Lexus HS 250h, and the Toyota Prius, among numerous others. Now Car and Driver has followed suit, recognizing the Fusion Hybrid as one of the 10 best cars for 2010 and not only for its eco-conscious virtues. Sure, the new hybrid is praised for its seamless, efficient powertrain, but it also excels where other hybrids have failed. The Fusion Hybrid is fun to drive, be it...
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2010 Toyota Prius: On the Road, And In Social Media TooCarmakers have dived into the deep end of social media, with iPhone apps, Facebook pages, Twitter streams, and a whole host of other online ways to reach potential buyers and promote their brands. Not surprisingly, given the affluent, environmentally aware nature of its audience, the 2010 Toyota...
John Voelcker -
All-Electric Rolls-Royce Phantom To Awe 2012 London Olympics?We almost never mention the 2010 Rolls-Royce Phantom here on GreenCarReports.com. That's because--at three tons, with 453 horsepower from its 6.7-liter V-12 engine, and an EPA rating of 13 mpg city / 19 mpg highway--it's [ahem] just not that green. Well, Rolls-Royce is looking ahead. Not only into...
John Voelcker -
Will Electric Cars Destroy Your Neighborhood Power Grid? No, But...Over the next 12 months, carmakers will introduce several new plug-in electric vehicles. One question that's frequently asked of GreenCarReports: Does recharging electric cars pose a threat to the electricity grid? The 2010 Fisker Karma and the 2011 Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrids, among other...
John Voelcker -
Toyota Prius To Become Brand's Biggest Seller Soon?Well, maybe "soon" is a bit of an overstatement. But Jim Lentz, the president of Toyota's U.S. arm, recently told Ward's Auto News that sales of the Prius--the best-selling hybrid in the U.S. market--could grow to equal those of the Toyota Camry sometime this decade. The Toyota Camry, including its...
John Voelcker -
Toyota: No Plans To Sell $21K 2010 Prius I to ConsumersThe 2010 Toyota Prius is in fairly short supply all over the world, and its U.S. sales are trouncing those of the 2010 Honda Insight, its competitor in the arena of dedicated hybrid hatchbacks. So perhaps it's not that surprising that Toyota doesn't feel the need to sell the lowest-spec 2010 Prius...
John Voelcker