Toyota Prius Plug-in News

Scroll down the leaderboards of Nürburgring lap times and you'll see mostly racing cars, supercars and sports cars. Delve deep enough and you'll eventually get to hatchbacks and sedans, albeit the most performance-focused of their kind. But a hybrid? Sure, the Porsche 918 Spyder posted the top time for a street-legal series production car, and it's technically a hybrid, but we'

Could 2016 be the year prospective Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid buyers are waiting for? Why, yes, says an unidentified Toyota spokesman. That's according to Plug-in Cars, which reports that a wireless plug-in vehicle charging system may be less than two years away for the Prius Plug-in.

We'll admit we don't understand all of this strange little ad for the Toyota Prius Plug In (our Japanese skills are not what they once were) but that just makes it all the more fascinating. The takeaway point is that a world full of PHEV Priuses will be astonishingly colorful at time and exciting, with food being delivered by a neck plug. Or something like that.

Are lower cost and longer all-electric range in a plug-in hybrid mutually exclusive concepts? That's what Toyota appears to be arguing to the California Air Resources Board (CARB). In documents recently filed with CARB concerning the Golden State regulator's 10-mile minimum requirement for all-electric range in plug-in hybrids. The EPA Danny King

Compared to last year's model, there's not much that's new in the 2014 Toyota Prius Plug-In hybrid –except the price tag. The nominally updated PHEV will lose $2,010 off of its base price while keeping all of the tech and options from the 2013 model. The new base model will therefore start at $29,990, while the Prius Plug-in Advanced model gets an even bigger cut – $4,620 - and will now start at $34,905. Those prices do not include destination fees, which Toyota has not revealed (not

Given the vehicle's importance as a halo car for Toyota, news of the next-gen Prius getting a potential 55 miles per gallon was our first headline from the recent Toyota Hybrid World Tour media event, but there is some news to report on the Prius Plug In as well. Namely, that the "plug" part of its name might be kind of superfluous

What did those "Helping Hands" end up doing, push the dang car for a month? Toyota in late May announced its first-ever Prius MPG Challenge pitting non-profits against each other for bragging rights over who could use the least amount of gas driving their Prius Plug-in. With t

Sure, it's a PR play to raise awareness for the Toyota Prius Plug-in, but Toyota's first-ever Prius MPG Challenge is for a good cause. Fifteen of them, for starters.

The Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid was the top selling plug-in hybrid vehicle in the United Kingdom, with 470 sold since being introduced to the market in July 2012. That means the Prius Plug-in Hybrid outsold the Vauxhall Ampera plug-in hybrid, Toyota says. The sales lead happened even though the Ampera was launched in the UK market three months earlier than the PHEV Prius. The Ampera is GM's European

In 2008, Boulder, CO became the "first Smart Grid City in the nation." It wasn't just a name, it was a step along the way for the town to become a green energy incubator. A few years later, Toyota sponsored a test program with 28 Prius Plug-In Hybrid vehicles conducted by Colorado University. CU has now released its preliminary findings from the two-year study, and

We've heard the Toyota Prius jokingly called the State Bird of California, but recent sales data shows that the world's most popular hybrid is, in fact, the best-selling car in the state. Well, the best-selling vehicle line, at least, since the Prius now comes in four variants.

Huh?

"Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss."

To get an accurate reading of how a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle performs in battery-only mode and in overall extended range, two experiences are useful: lots of behind-the-wheel driving time under various driving conditions (altitude, climate temperature, average speed driven, stop-start, etc.) or a detailed conversation with the chief engineer who designed the car.

What a difference 120 pounds make.