Toyota moves its two millionth hybrid vehicle, Ma Earth tips her hat
By Darren Murph 
posted September 6th 2009 11:13PM
posted September 6th 2009 11:13PM
posted September 6th 2009 11:13PM
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i just want the two-seater segway car. where is that???
In Obama's economic restructuring plan for GM. There's gonna be a special, dead-puppies version too.
Pre-sale starting in October, if my sources are correct.
The Prius' gas economy isn't so great when you factor in all the down shifting I've done to get around one doing 25mph up a hill in a 50 zone.
@ravicai - Complete crap. The Prius has plenty of power for anyone who's not a NASCAR fan. Anyway, the first step in reducing oil dependence is for people to stop thinking that a car that doesn't "slam" them into their seat isn't real car. How much longer did it take you to get to the speedway after driving behind that Prius? 3 minutes? Sorry.
That's not a car, that's a lunch box!
YES!
I've always wanted a 40+MPG Corrola!
omg me too!! Can't wait for that =D
Nothing better for mother nature than a battery-core that's to large to be recycled by 90% of the world so it ends up in garbage dumps across the globe!
Green peace 1, mother earth 0
Or on that note, a hybrid Matrix
Woohoo!!!! Nothing like mining nickel for batteries to put the O O O O O O in OXYGEN!!!! Woot!!!! Mother Nature had an orgasm thinking about what she's gonna do with all those batteries when the time comes!!!!!
Greenpeace dont sponsor this car, this car is a lie and a figment of marketing, almost everyone know this car is not friendly to the environment.
Buy a VW diesel car if you want good milage, even better than prius.
@newone
"Buy a VW diesel car if you want good milage, even better than prius."
It's not really about mileage it's about image. If you are driving a VW, nobody can tell how much you really care. With a Prius, it just screams "I'm better than you because I care about the Earth"
Never mind the diesel Jetta gets way better mileage.
Thank you murmermer and Charles - exactly what I was thinking. And have been ever since that POS came out.
Anyone have a neighbor with a Prius? Prius owner = Next-generation yuppie.
By 2012 I want Toyota to release the Plugin Prius that goes 100+ lol the 2010 Prius looks like a toy
no kidding. Ever see that Jeff Dunham show with the old-man puppet (his name escapes me at the moment.) That, and seeing as the only Prius factories are in Japan (last I knew), how 'environmentally friendly' are these things if you have to ship them over seas?
Except the pox marks from the nickel mines.
Oooh, you bad boy. Stop talking dirty like that, you're getting me all wet ;)
Don't forget the other end of the life cycle -- toxic battery waste.
Mother nature isn't tipping her hat, she's gagging and needs the Heimlich Maneuver.
*sigh* 12 years and look how far we have come....now we live off "coming soon" or "2009 release" which gets pushed to 2010 and then 2011....i predict in 2020 we will still be waiting for that game changer of a car...
No... by 2020 the American Empire has collapsed, triggering a global depression. The survivors of the war will time warp to 1980's Australia to be raiders, people holed up in a fort/oil refinery thing, or Mel Gibson.
One word:
THUNDERDOME!!!!!!!!!
Too bad the it takes an unreasonable amount of time to make up the extra cash you shelled out to buy a hybrid. Until technology is developed further (or hybrids are dirt cheap) Hybrids will remain more of a statement than an a practical, logical buy.
...i'm no fan of 'hybrid' cars, as they seem largely to be a soul soothing hope than any sort of solution to anything...that said, however, if it weren't for wealthier people wanting to look cool, lots of technology wouldn't be bought in the first place, and get a chance to be innovated into cheaper iterations that the rest of us can afford (we're also the rich early adopters, when it comes to things like cell phones for africa). Right now, they're probably worthless in terms of environmental savings, or general resource conservation--but hopefully 'smug' gas has a positive externality. :)
We are in an early phase of adopting these vehicles. As more sell, more companies will make them and more will sell. More efficient, more affordable models will follow.
This stuff has to start somewhere, even with these "statements," and we are seeing the start of the move away from consumer vehicles that use fossil fuels.
battery technology just needs to get better. the cost of hybrid cars has nothing to do with people not adopting them, its just simply too expensive to produce the batteries.
no hybrid for me any time soon. i'll just stick to cheap, small, efficient combustion motors. why can't people just drive smaller vehicles? i know sometimes people need trucks and SUVs but does your daily commute mobile really need anything bigger than a 4 banger?
When they first released the Prius their projection was 30,000/year.
i remember that
But that was before Al Gore bought out his inaccurate movie that made the public wake up to this so called man made global warming
Ya, Ma Earth tips her hat at a vehicle that still uses a ton of gas, and produces many other harmful byproducts in the process of making the battery system.
(Not a rip at Engadget, just a nod to the two million people who fell for buying a BS hybrid.)
I concur.
You know what also sucks? Walking. I have to eat food and drink water to get more energy, all of that takes so many resources and so many chemicals. I just hate my literal carbon footprint.
Sometimes youve got to go backwards before you can go forwards. These hybrids have started a trend in greener thinking.
Not that they are really that green but it provides a base to build off....oh so slowly build off..
I'm still hoping it will lead to plug-ins being popular which will lead to ev's being popular.
@sacapuntas: You sound fat.
@Matt
You sound slow. I was being sarcastic.
^^^^ehh... Joe not Matt.^^^^
But who ever Matt is I am pretty sure he is dumb too.
The Prius is more efficient than a standard-engine car in its class... So you'd rather this evolution never starts and we just run right up to the end of affordable fossil fuels and THEN figure out how we're gonna go to and from work? No, I doubt it. Get over your ideas that people are being "smug" (cutting off the nose to spite the face, if you ask me) and just think about the higher fuel costs, use, and emissions if those 2 million cars weren't hybrid.
@ sacapuntas
Joe=Matt
???
This is plain ignorance, the NiMH batteries in the Prius, are one of the most recycled battery components in the world. Close to 99% of NiMH automotive batteries are recycled, the Prius is made from and will be made into NiMH batteries.
In addition to that these NiMH batteries are non-toxic as batteries get. Comparatively speaking, the LiOn batteries in your cellphone and laptops are dramatically more toxic and worse for the environment.
Dont think Mother Earth is too pleased since the making and delivery of the Prius negates all the hybrid benefits...
thats so true ... delivering the hybrids from japan to north america uses so much fuel its not funny ... just get a domestic built car if ur so concerned bout the environment
It's not like I can drive a leaf. As "green" as it'd be, I can't just hop on my bulbasaur and hit the road. (I've got no clue why your statement made me think of bulbasaur.)
delivering cars to the us via container ships produces almost exactly nothing in terms of pollution/car, because those ships are GIGANTIC, super efficient diesel powered engines.
I've looked at some of the research on this, not with cars, but with food...I don't remember the numbers, but there is a VASTLY larger pollution effect simply driving home from the grocery store with those 5 bags of groceries than there were getting those groceries across the world to your supermarket.
It's an alluring myth, but a myth nonetheless. :)
Captain Planet is very disappointed....
@Cody:
You can drive a Leaf*.. I think it's coming out in 2010 for a select few, and then to everyone in 2011.
*Nissan Leaf - fully electric car..
I can't believe this myth is still perpetuated so long. ~70-80% of the energy use of a car is during the driving. This means a car like the Prius makes a huge pollution impact even counting in the extra energy (and thus pollution) from it's production.
This is probably carrying over from the same debunked myth that a Hummer is cleaner than a Prius (I seem some commenters who are referring to the EXACT myth as if it was true, which is very frustrating since I thought engadget readers would be much more up to date).
You can google "Hummer vs Prius" debunked to see plenty of links of why this myth is wrong.
Some people here also are STILL talking about the myth about acid rain from mining nickel for the Prius (which has since also been debunked, since the town Sudbury, Ontario cleaned up in 1970s, and the pictures for it was from before then; it's even getting aiming at getting 97% cleaner by 2015 and the Pruis only uses 0.5% of it's nickel output).
For those really lazy, here's an article that talks about both myths:
http://www.thecarconnection.com/article/1010861_prius-versus-hummer-exploding-the-myth
Also people completely ignore the fact automobile batteries are almost 90% recycled (one of the most successful recycling programs in history), and the large batteries in the Pruis is HIGHLY UNLIKELY to be different, since you can't just easy throw such a heavy battery in the trash and Toyota offers a money for it.
Link to show I am not BSing:
http://www.epa.gov/waste/conserve/materials/battery.htm
So to people still perpetuating these myths, inform yourselves and stop spreading the BS.
jake, I would +100 you if I could.
its all crap. mother nature dosent tip her hat to Toyota. owning a toyota prius is more harmful to the environment than owning a land rover suv.
the amount of crap that gets put into the air to mine for the sulfer in the batteries then to ship the sulfur on a huge barge to japan then they make the cars and have to ship them back to the us on that huge barge.
the transfer of all the parts and the vehicles is much much much more harmful to the environment.
You're polluting my eyes, why not clear up some things you said with some respectable links?