Prius

A123 Systems has created a Web site where Toyota Prius owners can preorder a battery to convert their cars to plug-in hybrids capable of getting well over 100 miles per gallon.

The switch from hybrid to plug-in hybrid doesn't come cheap, though. The battery and installation costs $9,995, plus an extra $400 "destination fee" and taxes.

The battery, called Hymotion 5, is designed to fit into the spare tire slot underneath the trunk of Prius model years 2004 to 2008. The company didn't say when the batteries would be available.

A123 Systems said the extended-life … Read more

The Truth About Cars blog posted commentary on the next generation Toyota Prius today. The car is supposed to debut at the 2009 Detroit auto show, but a few details have come out in Edmund's Auto Observer. The new Prius will be 3 inches to 4 inches longer than the current model and it will get a 50 horsepower boost. Along with all that, it will get better fuel economy than the current model. The last update was in 2004, so this new version is definitely due. There's also talk of another model in the Prius line, and … Read more

Plug-in hybrids get far better mileage than standard cars or regular hybrids--and emit far less pollution.

But they are also tough to justify economically at the moment with existing technology, according to the first several months of data from RechargeIT.org, which is studying how well plug-in hybrids work in real-world circumstances.

Plug-ins, in fact, only cut gas consumption by about 88 gallons a year over regular Priuses in urban driving. That comes to an annual savings of $158 to $250 (when you factor in the cost of electricity too). With the conversion running around $15,000, the payoff … Read more

ANNAPOLIS, Md.--Hybrid cars may be on every environmentalist-cum-trend setter's hot list, but their surging popularity is raising alarms among the blind and their advocates, who fear the near-silent vehicles could endanger lives.

In recent months, the National Federation of the Blind has launched what is becoming an international lobbying campaign for legislation that encourages--or flat-out requires--automakers to install noisemaking technology to address those potential perils.

Top NFB leaders focused their efforts Tuesday on this quaint state capital on the Chesapeake Bay, where legislation creating a state "Quiet Vehicles and Pedestrian Safety Task Force" is pending. If … Read more

If you've got a fancy job in the Bay Area, you're probably going to get the sales call from Sass Somekh.

Somekh, the former president of equipment maker Novellus and an alum of Applied Materials, has started OurPower.org as a way to promote plug-in hybrid conversions. Converting a regular Prius to a plug-in isn't cheap. The price runs about $10,000. Even if gas rises to $4 a gallon, it would still take nearly 100,000 miles of driving before you broke even. (OurPower.org is working with A123 Systems, the lithium-ion battery maker, to perform … Read more

The benefits of hybrid cars have been outlined and debated exhaustively. However, the National Federation of the Blind will testify next week on the dangers hybrid vehicles in silent mode pose to the blind, and other pedestrians. So called "full hybrid" cars, such as the Toyota Prius, and the Lexus GS450h shut off their combustion engines and rely on propulsion from quiet electric motors under certain low-speed driving conditions. According to the NFB, "hybrid vehicles are virtually silent when accelerating and decelerating, making it impossible for blind individuals to detect their presence". To address the issue, … Read more

If you live in Silicon Valley, you dream of the day when you will be rich enough to slum around in a Toyota Prius. Today I got to live the Prius dream. I just hope the gerbils powering the "engine" get a rest tonight.

Hertz screwed up my reservation and so "upgraded" me to a Prius. Having lived in the Valley for a few years, I was used to seeing socially conscious, ecologically smug entrepreneurs driving around in their gerbilmobiles, but this was my first chance to drive one.

It turns out that I wasn't missing a thing.… Read more

The face behind the wheel of a hybrid car is most likely to belong to an upwardly mobile, physically active person with tech savvy, according to a report by Scarborough Research (PDF).

Forty-two percent of those polled earn six figures or more each year. The group is more than 20 percent likely than average to be at least 50 years old. Nearly a third hold a postgraduate degree, with the rate of college graduation more than doubling the U.S. average.

Only 14 percent of hybrid owners identify as Republican, while 38 percent are Democrats, and 34 percent call themselves … Read more

Toyota's 1/X concept, shown at the 2007 Tokyo auto show, uses a body design that closely resembles that of the current Prius. But the 1/X has a lot of tricks up its sleeve that could give it double the already frugal Prius' mileage. First off, the 1/X's body is made of the same carbon fiber materials Toyota developed for its racing cars. This type of body makes the 1/X a third lighter than the Prius. As a flexible fuel vehicle, the 1/X's plug-in hybrid power train can burn gas and ethanol. With … Read more