Toyota's plug-in Prius hybrid goes into testing across the globe, on sale in 2011

Good news, everyone! The target date for Toyota's Prius plug-in hybrid (PHEV) is slightly less out of reach than the 2012 window we heard prior: according to Autoblog, it's now set for late 2011 and the price is deemed "affordable." Back to the present, as a tease to the world at large, the company's planning to produce and ship just under 600 of the models over the next six months. That breaks down to around 230 for Japan, 200 for Europe, and just 150 for the 'States. Government agencies, corporations, and universities are the primary recipients, and interestingly, half of those Euro-bound cars are going straight to Strasbourg, France. The only catch is that it looks like the autos will be sticking with its flashy, hyper-blue paint job -- not that we mind one bit, but we can see that bugging a few people out.

[nak Posted Dec 15th 2009 3:27AM]

JP = 1.8 cars per million population
EU = 0.4 cars per million population
US = 0.5 cars per million population

I think that's about fair, considering Japan is Toyota's home turf.

[tobey Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:17AM]

You read that first sentence as professor farnsworth didn't you?

[xaduurv Posted Dec 15th 2009 6:20AM]

@tobey I can't believe I missed that!

[Brickster Posted Dec 15th 2009 6:38AM]

@tobey

Guilty.

[cdheer Posted Dec 15th 2009 1:29PM]

@tobey: Hell yes.

[JS Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:21AM]

How about some specs.

[mrmckeb Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:59AM]

Late 2011... so I'll get about a year of use out of it.

[cycomachead Posted Dec 15th 2009 5:03AM]

Finally hybrids get really compelling! :) I've been watching this for a while, and I'm still a little surprised it took this long. But progress is good, and this is better than before. Though yesterday @ the LA Auto show, they didn't seem to be making it sound like it was that far off. "Oh our current prius is blah blah blah, and this is the next version." So, 2011 is a tiny bit disappointing, but I'm not buying a car for a while anyway. :)

[MyzterKinetic Posted Dec 15th 2009 7:17AM]

throw on a kinetic alternator 70%+ efficiency and re-charge this already

[NAME Posted Dec 15th 2009 8:07AM]

AHAHHA GM your VOLT is doomed!
You nubs at GM were hypin the VOLT and Toyota instead was busy in the labs making a superior car...

Time to die you fakin nubs. This is what you get for sucking!

[sitruc Posted Dec 15th 2009 3:35PM]

@NAME Umm. Not really. The Prius doesn't have near the range of the Volt.

[appsman Posted Dec 16th 2009 4:39AM]

@sitruc - The Volt won't last long enough to be even a blip on the EV timeline. GM has no real interest in EVs. Everything they've done, including the EV1, had been in response to government pressure, AND while lobbying heavily to get that pressure removed. Toyota OTOH, is making the Prius and plug-ins for true market reasons, and their sales numbers have proven them right. I'd love it to be otherwise, but GM doesn't have it's heart in it.

[sitruc Posted Dec 20th 2009 5:46PM]

@appsman Are you a Toyota rep or a fanboi?

[joelaf Posted Dec 15th 2009 9:44AM]

Won't Nissan's Leaf beat this to market?

[boe Posted Dec 15th 2009 10:20AM]

I've been waiting for the plug in Prius for ages but by the time it is out, the BMW hybrid looks SIGNIFICANTLY more interesting - 0-60 in about 5 seconds, 67mpg, 350 HP. Makes the Prius look like a ford festiva. I'm actually a fan of Toyata but the lexus hybrid is pretty bad. How is that the Prius has been around as long as it has, was way ahead of the rest when it came out and has been selling like hotcakes yet Toyota dragged their feet after it came out.

I believe if Toyota had kept the same momentum that got them to release the original Prius they could have a Lexus that could compete nicely with the BMW hybrid however the Lexus 250h is slow, doesn't get very good MPG and really doesn't have a lexus smooth drive.

Good for Toyota on finally releasing a plug in, LION battery powered hybrid - shame on them for being half a decade late on delivery. Maybe a few years after that they'll release a LIPO battery. Is GM now running Toyota - why so far behind the technology curve when you were once so far ahead of the rest?

[GeekPI Posted Dec 15th 2009 10:33AM]

@boe
Concept car does not equal a production vehicle. Once BMW puts the rest of the trimmings on their Diesel Hybrid for production, expect a much more pedestrian vehicle. There's no way they'll sell a car that outperforms and gets vastly better mileage than their M3 and not cost a fortune.

The Prius already has 10 years of production and millions of happy owners, with a very proven technology. Other than locomotive makers, no one has a working, reliable hybrid diesel. BMW may buck that, but I'm sure there's going to be plenty of repair bills for owners.

[Crazy J Posted Dec 15th 2009 11:45AM]

It's about damn time.

How long have consumers been retrofitting a plug in kit to their Priuses?

[bigsofty Posted Dec 15th 2009 4:16PM]

"Hybrid"... Zzzzz, fully electric or nothing... NEXT!

[dstafford72 Posted Dec 15th 2009 6:26PM]

I'm not too familiar with cars so I'm sorry if I sound stupid or ignorant but why is it that a plug-in electric car is better than one that oh-so-conveniently charges itself?

[appsman Posted Dec 16th 2009 4:44AM]

@dstafford72 - It's because if you drive less than 15 miles in a trip (like I do), you may NEVER have to put gas in it.