It's incredibly hard to believe that the original
Prius went on sale a full dozen years ago, but as the debatable face of the hybrid reaches its third generation, Toyota as a whole is celebrating the sale of its two millionth hybrid. As of August 31st, global sales of the automaker's hybrid fleet has surpassed 2.01 million, and as of now, there are 13 hybrids in the company's lineup. Later this year, Lexus (the outfit's luxury brand) is set to see its fourth hybrid hit the streets, and it's been said that
Toyota could have a hybrid version of every motorcar it sells by the end of the next decade. Not like it'll matter -- we'll all be cruising around in Jetson-mobiles or
Tesla Roadsters by then, anyway.
posted Sep 6th 2009 11:13PM
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?
No? Stuff gets mined and transported all the time.
Stop exporting american cars then, dumbass.
Mother earth tips hat... yea to 1,000,000 suckers. Thanks for being an early adopter. When these cars actually save me money i will buy one. Not just because it will make me feel like I am a better person than somebody with a SUV.
"hybrid drivers are the leading contributor of smug."
hah!
Ha! Hilarious! I love it when people strike jokes at the height of their popularity! Any Titanic jokes?
Mother Earth is all for efficiency, but sees through most of the Green Hype.
(and never forgets, she is the dumping ground for all the waste after all).
At this point, ME - as we'll call her - has called a conference to say "meh" to hybrids and "yeh" to getting on your (pedal-powered) bike, if at all possible, phatso.
;)
And the palm pre weeps at those unreachable numbers :)
One thing's for sure ... with that many people buying them, all other car manufactures are trying to play catch up with their own hybrids or electric cars. The Prius might not be saving people money or the environment now, but it helped change the way cars and batteries are being made for the future.
Stop living in the past. Last time I checked, the 20th Century is over.
"Toyota moves its two millionth hybrid vehicle, Ma Earth tips her hat"
Not like it'll matter -- we'll all be cruising around in Jetson-mobiles or Tesla Roadsters by then, anyway."
So....what's the point? Sometimes I don't get you, engadget.....
Can't wait to bury my spent battery in Mother Earth
The rest of us will recycle our lithium ion batteries.
"Ma Earth tips her hat"? got ignorance?
Buy American! Ford Motors Forever!
Ford Fusion Review: http://reviews.cnet.com/sedan/2010-ford-fusion-hybrid/4505-10865_7-33663918.html
(Can't blame me for showing national support) :)
Ill buy an American car when they stop passing off shit, stop taking their customers for granted and produce something worth buying.
As it stands German cars have my vote with Japanese a close second.
I'm sorry but for the price the Ford Fusion is a very good car and is not a piece of "shit" as you say. Actually Ford has improved alot of its designs and have created safer, more fuel efficient, faster and great riding cars. I would take a Ford Fusion Hybrid over a Prius any day.
@ Adderz
First of all, I know you didn't reference Ford and Toyota directly, but I will use them as examples as to why the logic behind your anti-American car sentiment is not sound.
I recently read that Ford just passed Toyota in terms of quality. So much for "passing off shit" and "producing something worth buying". I don't know how you can back "taking their customers for granted" with facts, but the American Customer Satisfaction Institute shows a 3% difference in overall satisfaction between Ford and Toyota, with Toyota at 86% and Ford at 83%. If Ford is in fact taking customers for granted, then they must be sending them through a mandatory brain-washing class too.
The 2010 Fusion hybrid costs $5000 more (at base price) and gets 10 mpg less than the 2010 Prius (it still gets 41 miles to the gallon), but it is a mid size sedan while the Prius is a compact. Personally, I'd take quality and size over price, and, in my opinion, a 10 mpg difference isn't a problem with current gas prices. Doing some quick math, it's a $200-300 difference in gas cost when driving 20,000 miles a year. Driving less makes the cost difference even smaller.
I'm too tired to find the links again and post them, but everything I just wrote is based on fact.
Ok, so let's see what happens in a few years when the battery components can no longer be recycled and when it depletes Neodymium from mother earth. Makings of a future eco menace? Just wondering....
Nickel for batteries mined in Canada with major environmental effects, sent to China via deisel burning. China, the biggest pollutor with little incentive to clean after itself ships finished batteries to Japan again using diesel burning ships, where cars are assembled from steel made in Japan, but whose ore comes from elsewhere. Final product is then shipped across the world and sold to people who think the environmental impact is less because they don't think about things as much as they think they do.
Just mentioning that the Prius is the #1 selling car in Japan .. by quite some margin. And has been for sometime.
Hopefully hybrid technology can find its way into larger vehicles which americans seem to require.
this is Matt, and you know what?
F you, sacapuntas.
you're not fun, you're not funny.
"...Ma Earth tips her hat"??
Just ask anybody living near a nickel mining/smelting facility in Canada, Russia, or the USA. Perhaps some info is required:
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/pubs/contaminants/psl1-lsp1/compounds_nickel_composes/compounds_nickel_composes_2-eng.php
http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=441
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/where_we_work/camexca/news_publications/art7269.html
en.rian.ru/russia/20080227/100179657.html
ww.epa.state.oh.us/ocapp/p2/mercury_pbt/fact96.pdf
Correction Lexus already has it's fourth hybrid out on the streets as of last month.
Clarity > Prius
Hybrids just can't make a dramatic enough change since battery technology advances at a snail's pace compared to our eagerness to adopt alternative fuels. Hydrogen isn't entirely better than gas (or gas/battery), but it is a significantly bigger step away from the oil-economy towards an electron-economy -- which is where we can really start to see clean /and/ inexpensive power, without the confusion of mixed energy sources and hidden costs.
That's 2 million potential hazmat situations, 2 million extra miles driven.....thanks eco-nuts for pumping all that extra non-temperature rising CO2 into the air. I hope you are all happy.
I'm really disappointed in the comments on the solar roadways and prius articles on Engadget today. I thought that most technologically-inclined people were also smart enough to recognize the need for less selfish consumerism (eg refusing to buy a version of something that reduces their impact if it involves any cost to themselves, unwillingness to make any changes in their own habits for the greater good) and intelligent enough to understand that innovation requires prototypes and a society willing to innovate.
Also, it's really NOT cool and trendy to scoff those who are. It may have been cool in 1985 or 1995, but obviously it's not trendy after decades.
I just got a v8 AMG to balance out all these hybrids that are polluting our earth more and more...
I think hybrid cars are a good start, but for anyone who doesn't think their owners are smug, I submit this picture I just took on Saturday:
http://benheck.com/images/misc/smug.jpg
Just think, this person actually went out of their way to go to a sign shop, get some vinyl (petroleum-based) lettering, and put it on to remind everyone that their car gets the same mileage as a $800 1986 Chevy Metro.
Ug.
heh!
Minivan! Minivan! In the US! It's been out for almost as long as the Prius, yet Toyota still won't bring it to the US unless we push harder. Minivan!
Just to make sure, driving in Jetsons vehicles? Tesla vehicles? There will be flying cars in the future but I only need to question - will the cars be environment friendly? There will be cheaper Teslas but I don't think it'll be anywhere below 35,000 dollars. So, no thanks, I'll still drive the Toyota Pruis. Staying original is fun and safer, :)!