Hybrid Cars

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.