Toyota have finally done it! A plug in Prius!
Jul 25th, 2007 by aminorjourney
Yes, that’s right. Toyota, the firm which we all thought would never actually do it - have finally launched a press release and video of their Plug In Prius, the first commercial Plug-In-hybrid for Japanese roads.
While the car is still in testing phase, with eight plug-in OEM vehicles being manufactured and released for testing in Japan, hopes are high that Toyota will soon release this car to the general public.
The car, which has a 13 AH NiMH battery, is still no match for the converted Prius as commercially available through such companies as Amberjac Projects or the home-made custom conversions done through groups such as CalCars ; The Toyota prototype can only travel 10 miles before it needs a recharge in contrast to the 20-30 mile range of a converted plug-in Prius. However, anyone who converts their own Prius to Plug-in status risks loosing the protection of Toyota’s warranties as well as having to spend anything up to £10,000 in addition to the cost of their car. 
It is a shame that the Toyota OEM plug in prius seems to have such a short range, but when you examine the figures for recharging perhaps this model will have an edge on converted models; 1-1.5 hours at 200 volts which should translate to just under an hour at 240V here in the UK if appropriate changes were made to the charger. A car which does 30 miles in EV mode would of course be better for long commutes, but perhaps the 1 hour recharge of a 10 mile ranged car may just make up for this shortfall.
In the meantime why not take a peek at the video released at the same time as their press release:
