Toyota's been sneaking around on Nickel-powered Priuses behind their back, performing a 3 year, 126 car road test of Lithium Ion batteries in the 2006 Prius.  The results?  The cost doesn't justify the "small" fuel economy gains.  Here are all the details from Bloomberg:

It's getting to that time of year when it's chilly when you leave for that morning commute.  You've probably started to notice that your Prius gets notably worse gas mileage on these cold mornings, and the PriusChat Shop has the way to remedy it.  An Engine Block Heater is an easy to install add-on to your car that allows you to "pre-heat" your Prius' engine, enabling you to start out with fantastic mileage even on the coldest of days. 

Toyota hasn't released any fuel efficiency numbers yet, but the Auris Hybrid Concept has an EV Mode that can take you 1.25 miles at speeds up to 31 MPH.  The PWR, ECO, and EV modes all transfer over from the 2010 Prius into the Auris concept, giving the driver control over their driving experience. 

The actual concept car won't be shown in the flesh until next week at the Frankfurt Motor Show, but Toyota released a bunch of details and new photos today of the Prius Plug-In Concept.  Here are the highlights:

• Lithium-ion battery technology allows for compact packaging and quick recharging
• Rechargeable from domestic power supply or public charging point in about 1.5 hours
  
• Extended EV (electric) driving mode of up to 12.5 miles at speeds up to 62mph
• Over longer distances, Prius Plug-in switches to conventional petrol-electric full hybrid operation
• CO₂ emissions cut to less than 60g/km

With some new 2010 Prius owners being charged $100+ for an oil change due to the 0W-20 synthetic oil requirements, we have some good news.  PriusChat forum member Sphyrna has posted a document provided by his dealership in Miami showing that the 2010 Prius oil change interval will be changed to 10,000 miles instead of the current 5,000 miles.  The document appears to be a training material for dealerships and contains other pages showing that th

Welcome to a new feature on PriusChat - the Monday Morning Prius Diary.  Each Monday morning I'll start out the day by telling you a little bit about where I went in my Prius over the weekend and how my car played a role in my trip.  Our first Monday Morning Diary is actually going to be a Tuesday Morning Diary due to the Labor Day holiday weekend, but you get the idea.  Please post a comment in the discussion thread sharing your Monday Morning Prius Diary with the PriusChat community.  Here we go...

There are still no hard details on the Plug-In (PHEV) Prius, but we at least finally have a picture of what it'll look like.  Toyota has chosen the 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show as the place to release more details, but it doesn't start until September 15th.  What we do now know is that the charging port for the Plug-In Prius will be just below the driver's side mirror (same side as the gas tank door).  We also know that Toyota will release 200 test vehicles to Japan, 150 to the US, and another 150 to Europe to commercial and government fleets by early 2010.

Cash For Clunkers was a little too good to the Toyota Prius, leading to shortages across the country in August and an actual decrease in sales over July's numbers.  Compared to August 2008, though, Prius sales were through the roof, up 45.7 percent.  When will the Prius show back up on lots?  Will September's numbers decrease substantially due to the lack of C4C and no stock?  September has been a month of spiking gas prices (at least on the East Coast) due to hurricane season, so it should be an interesting month for the 2010 Prius.

If you were around on Earth Day for the PriusChat Earth Day Live Chat with Doug Coleman from the Prius product team, you already know half the story.  The Prius will have a factory-installed iPod integration option for Navigation-equipped models beginning with August production and most likely hitting the shores in September.  What Doug couldn't (or wouldn't) tell us back in April was the price of this upcoming option.  Today we have news from Toyota's Flickr and Twitter feeds that the