A nine mile all electric range seems a little small considering that an EDrive upgrade on the existing Prius will give up to 30 miles of pure EV range. Why such a small range for a future full production car ?

it is probably a typo, 2.5 liters per 100 kilometers

I think that they mean 2.5 L/ 100 km. That's the way the Canadians usually report their mileage.

maybe that is how they will achieve 94mpg, by making an assumption about the expected usage of the vehicle, then counting the electricity as free. if all of your trips are low speed and less than 9 miles, you'll have infinite miles per gallon.

this is valid and true, of course.

i don't expect they'll make a major improvement in highway efficiency. their coefficient of drag can't be reduced much, they already use low rolling resistance narrow tires, and atkins cycle engine.

so, for people in wide open spaces, the next gen prius should have about the same efficiency as the current on. city-folk stuck in traffic will be better off, though

Be careful that Toyota engineers are probably using Japanese 10-15 mode figures for fuel economy, which leads to much better results : for instance the current Prius versions sold in Japan achieve from 2.8 to 3.0 L/100km depending on the version (different tyres available there) according to this method. So 2.5 L/100km sounds possible to me, but needs to be translated in the real world. Maybe 3.5 L/100km...

Interesting times indeed.There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.Im sure many of us took the plug in partners survey which asked would you buy a plug in if it were availlable.The message is getting out to automakers and politicians.The Bush energy bill has energized this push.It was delayed for four years by dems.Partisan politics by both sides will weaken us and empower our enemies.Dems and repubs now have a bill{vehicle fuels choice and security}Go to www.govtrack.us and you can track energy legislation.Lefty loonies and rightwingnuts act together and call your reps and insist they work together on this legislation.Passage of this would accelerate the adoption of the tech we read about here.Your voice is your most powerful weapon in this fight.We can honor the men in the battlefield by solving the energy dependence that put them there.Energy independence will be cleaner and someday actually clean.There will be a number of steps to get there.Lets not squabble about every step rather lets begin the journey.

The Prius stopped useing low rolling resistance tires as of the '04 model year. They use Goodyear integrity tires to this day..........

It would be progress if they began to ship a Prius to the United States that would have any all-electric miles!

The Prius in Europe and Japan already have such a feature. It was removed by Toyota for North American sales.

I doubt whether the concept vehicle appearing at the dream house was the first plug-in devised by Toyota engineers. It would be interesting to know how long ago they began testing a plug-in approach.

Actually I find a factory plug in 9 mile range GREAT. It will be a game changer if it gets here. Many could buy the car and cut thier gas use down 75% or more over a REGULAR un plugged prius. Yes, not everyone has many trips under 9 miles but many people do.

The highway mpg on the Prius could go up with a gearset that would allow the gas engine to turn off over 45mph. Going downhill on the highway the gas engine does not shut down, so that could be improved.

Further improvements could come from an exhaust energy recovery turbine and/or a bottoming cycle driven by engine waste heat, but the latter wouldn't work well in start/stop duty cycles.

Good post Chingy. I wonder what all these start-ups will do to the landscape when they release their products in the next few years. It's gotta stink when a big company puts millions into R&D only to lose cold to some start-up company, but, oh well!

Companies need to add extra battery packs as an option, ones that can be plugged in at the expense of some trunk space, etc. Great option for people with longer drives, and this would be a modular approach that would not cost companies anything extra.

Honda has been the undisputed mileage king the whole time. They will not relinquish their title without a fight. They make the best and most efficient engines by far: if they would only add much more electrical power (b/c it's very minimal at present) they will do wonders I'm sure, esp. if i.c.e. development continues as it has been. The insight has been out since, when, 1999? 7 years basically unchanged! I'm very eager to see their newest high mileage car, whenever it comes out, to keep the competition going. I pray it will be a plug-in with a serious battery pack.

This is way better than watching baseball.

I moved to Tennessee, and yes, the engine in the Prius shuts off going down the hill even at 70 mph! If the slope is enough, of course. My mileage improved from flat Florida by a good couple of mpg.

Thermoelectric/thermovotaic combo: It'll strip half the waste heat off the exhaust and coolant. Maybe throw in a onboard high themp hydrolytic unit, and you'll boost it by >6%. Total efficiency could rise to >62%. Then you could achieve 98+mpg highway, 110+mpg city (conserative estimate). Add better storage units, and it'll rise even more.