Toyota Hybrids

Thanks to the blog-o-sphere, not even the best kept automotive secrets remain a secret for long. Thanks to everyone’s favorite car nerd turned spy photog Woody, our favorite auto bloggers Jalopnik and the green transportation authorities over at Green Car Reports, news and images of the long awaited plug-in Prius wagon have finally surfaced—shocking!

When you think of a hybrid car, the Prius is probably the first vehicle that comes to mind. That's how good Toyota has branded their car, and a measure of its success. But no other metric is better at showing the Prius's dominance than it's sales figures. Throughout the month of September, Toyota had but a mere 4 day supply of the green machine. Yet even with the prowess of the Prius, Toyota faces some serious financial issues that could be much larger than any of Detroit's Big 3 have faced. Thus it makes sense that Toyota is putting it's best foot forward. Starting now, Prius's of all trim levels get a $400 bump in price. Totoya is also planning to spend about 40% more marketing dollars in the 4th quarter of 2009, hoping to make the Prius a hot holiday item.

In 2012, Toyota plans to release their first plug-in hybrid vehicle, aiming at 20-30,000 unit's per year. We are a long way off from having a plugin infrastructure, so lets hope it takes a standard 110V outlet.