The nominees for the 2010 Green Car of the Year have been announced, and to no one's surprise the Toyota Prius is on the list. Here's the full list of nominees:

• Audi A3 TDI
• Honda Insight
• Mercury Milan Hybrid
• Toyota Prius
• Volkswagen Golf TDI

Last year's winner was the VW Jetta TDI, and I don't expect the Prius to win this year given Ron Cogan and the rest of the award jury's lean toward diesel/performance vehicles.

The winner will be announced Dec. 3.

The good folks with the Prius Team have shared some details in the PriusChat forums about the Prius I and a "price adjustment" on the Prius II-V models. The Prius I is the "base" model Prius that was announced to compete with the Honda Insight on price, while still offering the MPG and size of the Prius. Between January to May, Toyota probably was pretty worried about the Insight cramping the Prius' sales figures. So they came up with the idea of the Prius I, a "stripped, not equipped" version of the car.

I'm not going to be able to make it this weekend because of moving, but I expect all of you to go!

It looks like the new Honda Insight is in for some hard times, sales-wise.  Honda sales figures for June show that Insight sales dropped 25% from 2,780 units in May to 2,079 units in June.  Over the same period the Prius' sales have risen from 10,091 units to 12,998.  It's hard not to point out that the Prius' increase from May to June was greater than the number of Insights sold in June. 

At this rate, it's going to be tough for Honda to reach their 90,000 sales goal by the end of the first model year. 

I received an invitation from Southeast Toyota and Jim Barkley Toyota for all Asheville area PriusChatters to attend a 2010 Prius & Honda Insight "Hands On" Workshop this Thursday, June 25th at 1:30pm.  Southeast Toyota will have a product trainer on hand to go over the features on the two cars and compare the technologies.

The Toyota Prius was Japan's best-selling car in May, while the Honda Insight dropped from 1st place to 3rd place behind the Honda Fit.

"I think a green car tax break and other incentives helped the sales performance (of the Prius) quite a bit," Akihiko Otsuka, chief engineer for the new Prius, told reporters in Toyota City, home to the automaker.

Shortages

The Prius Chief Engineer Akihiko Otsuka himself confirmed with the Automotive News and Japan's Nikkei newspaper that a Yaris Hybrid is being developed and should be ready for the 2011 model year.

The new Toyota hybrid will be marketed to both Japan and the United States and will be equipped with a version of the Hybrid Synergy Drive system. Expect it to target the lower end of the market and be released with a target price lower than the Honda Insight's $20k tag.

I caught this last night during House or 24... something on Fox. Pretty nifty commercial. Looks like Honda is going right after the "active lifestyle" customer that the Prius currently attracts.  Here it is in YouTube "HQ" goodness.

Article submitted by member cwerdna.

Article is a little confusing about the supposed US pricing.

"TOKYO (AP) -- Honda introduced Thursday the cheapest hybrid on market, starting at 1.89 million yen ($21,000) in Japan and under $20,000 in the U.S., hoping to turn around sluggish sales battered by the global downturn.
...
The big appeal of the Insight, a five-door hatchback, is its pricing.

Details of overseas pricing are still undecided. But it's cheaper than Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius, the top-selling hybrid, which sells for $22,000 in the U.S. and 2.3 million yen in Japan..."