From the Washington Post:

"A legion of Toyota brass explained during hours of PowerPoint presentations that the new Prius has been designed to elbow its way into the upper ranks of the U.S. passenger car market..."

For those of you who haven't seen this commercial on TV yet, here is the most recent 2010 Prius commercial.  Looks like the commercials are starting to focus on features - this video shows how the Solar Roof ventilation system works. 

I'm still not really feelilng the artsy-style of these commercials, but they sure are pretty in HD!

PriusChat member (and apparently Toyota of Dallas representative) Dallas_Prius is letting everyone know about a 2010 Prius event being held at Toyota of Dallas.

Here are all of the details.  Any Dallas/FW area PriusChatters should attend!

I was starting to feel ike a deadbeat dad. Due to a couple mishaps I brought upon myself, my 2010 Winter Grey Prius had been sitting on the lot at Jim Barkley Toyota in Asheville, NC for a whole week. It was disoriented, cold and alone, locked up in an unfamiliar dealership lot. My Prius probably thought that no one wanted to drive it, that no one cared about it enough to take it home. But tonight was the night. I finally picked up my brand spankin' new 2010.

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

You've probably seen at least 2 of the 3 Prius commercials on TV by now, but you may not have seen some of Toyota's other marketing efforts for the 2010 Prius.  Today PriusChat member (and maven of his own website) john1701a pointed out Prius advertising on Dictionary.com.

You can also find Prius references on various Dictionary.com pages:

Dictionary.com

Hybrid definition

Toyota, how can I be one of the lucky 150 US-based testers?  And no, I'm not kidding.

Toyota to start leasing plug-in hybrids in Japan, US, Europe

YURI KAGEYAMA

AP Business Writer

3:41 AM PDT, June 3, 2009

TOKYO (AP) — Toyota said Wednesday it will start leasing plug-in hybrid cars, that are even greener than its hit Prius, by the end of this year in the U.S., Japan and Europe.

The economy sucks, we all know that.  But the decline in Prius sales may have finally hit bottom as we saw a rise in May sales compared to April.  Taking into account that the 2010 Prius was not available for about 95% of May, it looks like Prius sales may have been on their way up on their own without sales of the new model.

May sales were still down 30% compared to May 2008, but gas was about $1.50 higher last May.

Best. Prius. Commercial. Ever.

"Ya won't see me ever hit E with my MPGs..."

Video after the jump.

It looks like Japan is getting all of the fun and comical TV ads for the 2010 Prius while the US is stuck with the artsy ones.  Below are 2 commercials airing in Japan that feature Superman helping to point out all of the new features on the 2010 Prius.  For the "Chuck" fans out there, you might recognize Superman as Bryce Larkin, AKA actor Matthew Bomer.  Funny enough, Bomer was originally cast as Superman for Brett Ratner's remake that never ended up happening.