Toyota is taking the leadership role in automobile manufacturing with solid engineering and good managment. Something our domestic industry woefully lacks.
Maybe with another downsize the management at GM and Ford can get themselves 50 million dollar bonus's

Tesla Motors announced licensing their battery technology to some big names. May Toyota be "the big"? Nonetheless, with li-ion it would rock!

Hopefully when and if the domestic decide to follow another's lead it isn't Toyota. They make dreadfully boring products. I'd much more like to see the domestics emulate Honda or BMW, the former being a much more realistic goal.

Although the Tesla batteries are nice, it still requires a long charge time. The new Zap-X from Lotus features 10 minute charge time and only a $60,000.00 price tag for a 650HP SUV with 650lbs of torque. That might seem like a high cost, but the Tesla is over 100k. Also new Lithium-Ion batteries that use new chemicals to double capacity are coming to market, as well as totally new Zinc based batteries that boast more than triple the energy density of current batteries.

not a plug in???

I would only buy a plug in hybrid.

Its just a buzz. Whats better a todays hybrid that gets 45 mpg or a Diesel that get 55 mpg??? Its not about hybrid... at the end its all about MPG !!!

But plug ins would completely change that. Because they always go on electricity at any speed until they are out of juice. Most of my trips are shorter, so I would not need gas at all.

The power from my outlet is cheaper and gets produced cleaner than burning it in my car.

I see no point in hybrids really. If we can make a move to alternate fuels and reduce or even eliminate harmful emissions then hybrid technology was pretty much for nothing. It seems to just assure further dependance on the oil industry. I MUCH rather a diesel and have the capability of running future biodiesels.
Oh yeah.. thats one hidious car, but i guess it goes with toyotas trend of making ugly cars.

We need plug in cars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I drive 20 miles to work round trip! We need plug in cars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hybrids are not the answer.

Hell my brother's 1986 Nova/Corolla 5speed got over 45mpg on the highway! What has happened???????????????????????

Hell my 66 mustang with a V8 gets 20mpg on the highway.

Hmmm all of these hybrids are coming out and we are still using more and more gasoline.

What is really needed is conversion to plug-in hybrids. Switching to BioDiesel or Hydrodgen will continue our dependency on the Oil industry and is a very expensive transition as Thousands upon thousands of fuel stations will need to be overhauled.

Plug-In electrics can easily be plugged in to a special utility box installed at home or work into the existing power grid. Cleaning pollution from one source...the local Power Plant is much easier than doing it from the tail pipes of millions of vehicles on the road.

This would remove our dependency on foreign oil and would shift our dependency to the plentiful supply of US Coal. The US is to coal as Saudi Arabia is to Oil after all.

Also electric engines are far...far simplified in comparison to the combustion engine. It would mean less maintenance and lower cost of ownership for vehicle owners.

This is why both Auto manufacturers and the Oil companies have resisted electric vehicles. It's a complete bust for Oil companys and auto manufacturers love selling us new cars once every 4 years. That would all change if the engine lasted much longer and was as easy to maintain as an electric engine is.

Well, around these parts, almost all electricity is generated by burning coal, so I don't see how plugins are the answer either.

Jon both biodiesel and especially hydrogen dont need the oil industry. Current biodiesels use alcohol for octain boost and use of gasoline isnt needed at all. The oils are derived from vegitables. Hydrogen uses no fossil fuels at all if the extraction process can go all solar. Right now they have charging stations that take a week to produce enough hydrogen for 1 car.. but solar cell technology is getting better.

I think the answer is hybrid desiel's(the low torque range of both motors will complement each other VERY nicely! Also having a plugin option is a good idea,but here's a better one. SOLAR PANEL ROOFS. How great would it be to have your car charge its batteries, parked outside of your work's office builing and every day, for free, with truely ZERO emissions generated from charging, you have a 100% charge before driving home? Plug in for those rainy days and for overnight charging. You would also always be charging while driving when it is sunny out. again for free. Commuting around town could even potentially run entirely on solar power for short, low speed trips. The gas engine would only be used for additional acceleration power, highspeed crusing, climbing hills, or charging the batteries when the solar panels weren't providing a sufficient charge.

Oh boy here we go again.

Hybrid cars are a gimmick of the automakers for selling underpowered cars for more money.

The Prius does not get 61mpg. The new EPA estimates place it somewhere around 42-48mpg. Most normal driving conditions place it more likely around the high 30s. I have some friends that own a Prius and unless you are stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on the expressway all day every day and stay under 25mph, then the hybrid is for you.

They compare the hybrids to cars of the same size with larger engines. The Saturn Aura comes with a 3.6 L V6 at 224 HP. The Aura greenline hybrid saves you a handful of mpg, but the engine is a 2.4L 164 hp engine.

ALL of the savings in mpg are solely due to the reduced engine size. The prius has a 1.5L engine, a non-hybrid car with this engine should get at least 40mpg.

The batteries are heavy are very environmentally unfriendly and actually reduce your mpg in most driving conditions. The batteries will also need to be replaced right around the time the car needs to change hands when the warranty period expires, for another 3-5 grand.

With such a tiny engine you will be wasting a lot of gas on the highway. Small engine + heavy batteries =poor gas economy.

The best option today is to buy a car in the smallest engine class for your body style and save mpg.

Hybrids are a huge gimmick and until they can save you 50% on gas mileage for the same size engine, they are simply not worth the trouble.

It also takes energy to produce the battery packs.

Why on earth would someone shell out several thousand dollars more on a car with a smaller engine when they can simply BUY a car with a smaller engine or go diesel?

Plug-ins? Are you kidding. It takes fossil fuels to generate the electricity for the plug-ins. Last time I checked the environmental wack jobs don't want the US to generate electricity using Nuclear. Until we convert to all nuclear plug-ins are also a bad option.

Oh one more thing, to Prius owners that insist they didn't get a gimmick and tell me that you have to watch the mpg and learn how to drive with it to get better mpg, THIS WORKS WITH EVERY CAR, hybrid or not.

If you accelerate very slow, coast a lot and use your brakes effectively you should get better mpg on every single car on the road. Keep your tires properly inflated, your engine maintained, air filter cleaned etc and mind your driving. I recently went up from 27 to 32 mpg in my car, in the CITY. My old VW used to get over 40mpg on the highway too.

Too bad about the environmental damage done by the refineries that refine the nickel that are used to create the batteries. That process makes the surrounding environment practically unlivable. Sulfur compounds and such.

This takes place in Canada, then the metals get shipped (using oil powered ships) to several destinations around the world, before going to China to be made into batteries, which are then shipped (which uses more oil) to japan to be made into cars which are then shipped (even MORE oil) to the US.

And when these batteries reach end of life, where will they go and what impact will that have?

We're just shifting the environmental impact from CO2 from gasoline burning to poisonous manufacturing byproducts and CO2 emissions from shipping.

I'm waiting for the "ooops, manufacturing batteries will kill us all" realization.

Sorry about the repeats. Stupid form wasn't submitting correctly. Apparently, it posted, and the resulting screen was just failing.

Editor: feel free to nuke the first two!

Wookie and Erik:

I couldnt say it better!

If someone wanna drive a hybrid and think they are saving the world.. Good for them!... Just dont think everybody is as easy to fool as they are!

Wanna make the diference: Drive less! ride a bike! use the metro! live closer to work!

Eric and Wookie hit the nail on the head. Hybrids are a joke and many people have the misguided impression that they're the best thing since sliced bread.

A lot of misinformation coming from the Wookie....

1. The Prius hybrid system recaptures energy that would otherwise be wasted as heat in the break pads. This feature alone makes it more efficient than a similar non-hybrid with the same gas engine.
2. I've never heard of a Prius owner getting less than 40mpg under any conditions.
3. The Prius uses NiMH battery packs that are much lighter-wieght than the old Lead-acid type. The total curb weight of the Prius even with batteries is less than 3000 lbs.
4. The batteries have a design lifetime of 15 years, and the battery warranty is 8 years/100,000 miles

WS,

about your topics.. my city car right now is small fiat with little more than 2000 lbs and it has better space, better performance, and it easily gets 30/40 mpg (city/hwy) and.. best part.. i costs arround USD 8k (here in brazil where all cars are very expensive!)

do you wanna see a prius getting less than 40mpg.. easy.. put 3 people plus luggage, air con and drive at 65 mph... (gas engine on full time)

recapturing energy from the brakes is excelent... do it to recharge your main battery.. (that today runs a lot of eletronics, eletric windows.. and maybe even part of your ar con.. ) little complication, lots of results in city driving..

a while ago, when i needed very good mpg because i couldnt stand the gas (college-home comute).. i used to ride a small honda bike with a 100 cc engine.. city only i got mpgs around 130-160... this is something to respect.. not this huge buzz and little gain of the prius...

Rafael,

No doubt your Fiat is an excellent car, and many people in the US would love to have a similar weight/performance/efficiency combination in a vehicle sold in the US. However, if Fiat was to try and sell that model in the US, I would be willing to wager Fiat would have to add nearly 1000 lbs of weight to the car in order to meet crash and emissions standards. The last 15 years or so, automotive regulation in the US has really been a problem for the automakers, resulting in some good improvements, but also resulting in a great increase in weight. Increase in weight means larger engine to maintain performance expectations, which means decreased efficiency.

Toyota is creating a new BRAND(similar to Lexus and Scion) for the marketing of their hybrids.They are building a plant with Panasonic to produce enough batteries for 750,000 vehicles(look for a corolla sized hybrid).Let's hope hybrid hype ends before the next bhopal.I see hope in biofuels.