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>> The Toyota Prius--it may own the Hybrid market today but it's in danger of being left behind by upcoming electric cards and plug in Hybrids; so it's no wonder Toyota rolled out a concept of a plug-in Prius Hybrid at the Frankfurt show. Lithium ion battery technology is what powers this even though Toyota execs have said publicly, they don't think Lithium ion is going to be cost effective in production cars for many years to come. This plug-in Prius can go up to 60 miles per hour in pure electric mode, that's more than double what today's Prius Hybrid can pull off, and it can go 12 miles of range on electricity alone before it converts to traditional Hybrid mode when we expect it could get about the same 50ish mpg of today's car. Recharging that Lithium ion battery pack would take just 90 minutes if you connect it to a 220 outlet. Now a test fleet of 500 of these cars will hit the road in Japan, Europe and the U.S. soon and then they expect to start selling them in showrooms by 2012; price to be determined.
