Toyota confirms plug in 3rd Gen Prius next year.

This is from UK Car Magazine "Autocar":


"A ‘plug-in’ version of the third-generation Toyota Prius powered by lithium ion batteries will be ready for market early in 2010.
In an exclusive interview for Autocar, Toyota’s Executive Vice President responsible for research and development, Masatami Takimoto, confirmed that the company’s long-standing scepticism towards lithium ion battery technology has now been put to rest.
“We have made much development progress with lithium ion batteries over the last six months,†said Takimoto. “We are now convinced that they can be used in our future plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles, although our cheaper hybrid models will continue to use nickel metal hydride batteries.â€
The first of Toyota’s lithium ion-powered cars will be a ‘plug-in’ version of the Prius, which will be available in Japan later this year, and will come to the UK in very limited numbers at first in early 2010.
The car’s zero-emissions electric-only range – the distance it will travel on battery power alone after a full mains charge – is not yet set in stone, but it’s expected to be no more than 20 miles. That being the case, however, it will need a much smaller lithium ion battery pack than the GM Volt, and so will be cheaper; expect a sub-£30k price tag.
tended electric-only running won’t be the only thing going for the ‘plug-in’ Prius, however. Toyota has been trialing the lithium ion battery technology in collaboration with EDF Energy, in development cars running around Paris. It has found them to return between 60 and 80 per cent better fuel economy than the nickel metal hydride version once the combustion engine comes into play, depending on usage.
Takimoto also confirmed Toyota’s plans for a lithium-ion battery only ‘EV’ city car – “not an iQ, but something similar in size,†– which will arrive in 2012."

plug ins only a test program and only available to corporate fleets only. not for sale to us peons.

Autocar is so full of ***, i wouldnt trust a thing they say... up to week ago, they were claiming that new Prius is going to get worse mpg than old one

Also reported Down-Under here:

Toyota unveils a plug-in electric Prius | Herald Sun

patsparks, maybe you could find out some more, another PriusChat scoop!

the plug in intro is no secret. but it has been made very very clear that it will not be for public consumption. does any of these articles recognize that???

Also being reported over at our friends website gm-volt.com

2010 Prius Gets 50 MPG, Will Top Out Over $30,000, and Will Have Plug-in Version in 2010 | GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

I really hope they are wrong about the price being near $42,000 for the plug-in Prius!

I had the impression someone was guestimating a likely price based on an assumed additional cost for lithium batteries.

It should be pointed out that this news is from the Geneva motorshow which is open now. From the pictures on the Autocar website it looks like Toyota has at least 2 x 2010 Prius models on show - both white. One with the 15" wheels and solar roof and the other wih the 17" wheels and normal roof.

the chief engineer told us at the PC Detroit event that the plug in would be ready by the end of this year. I believe that it is probably running late, so 2010 would not be to difficult to believe.

wait...........did i hear (read) that the 2010 prius is going to be $42K??

The articles about the potential for a plug-in capable 3rd gen (2010) Prius using Lithium batteries would be priced under 30k £ (GBP) which converts to approximately 42k USD. AFAIK, the pricing for the publicly available 2010 Prius (using Nickel Metal Hydride batteries) pricing has not yet been announced.

DOES anyone know how much the fully loaded 2010 will be?

no

I think it is BS.

Doug Coleman knows but he's not telling yet. Don't hold your breath; we probably won't see official US MSRP pricing until May.

My guess is $33K +/- $1K.

i say $31,500 for top of the line. i think someone should get a 2010 free for closest guess

One of the proposed prices for the Volt was (is?) $42,000. Toyota makes comments saying the Plug-in Prius will be under $42,000 as a way of saying "Cheaper than the Volt", but no one gets it and somehow they draw wild conclusions about the price of the non plug-in 2010 Prius.