Very cool, hope its true.

"Toyota is moving up the rollout of a plug-in hybrid for fleet purchase to late 2009, up from an earlier estimate of sometime in 2010."

Perhaps this means that "sometime in 2010" is when the plug-ins will be available to consumers!

My concerns is what the range of electric only will be? From the sounds of it only 7 to 10 miles for the "fleet" models. Sounds like they plan a longer range for the "consumer" models. But I hope that range is far enough or else they could potentially lose the #1 hybrid spot to some others that are coming out with new Hybrids / EV.

Exactly, I look forward to being able to exploit extended EV capability.
I guarantee I'll exceed the advertised electric range.
And it must be rechargable while driving, as it is now, in addition to Plug-in capable.

I'm not arguing, I'm simply asking for some discussion/enlightenment. As opposed to driving 7-10 miles on EV only and then switching to hybrid, wouldn't it be more efficient to continue to use the Prius as it already operates, except to increase the proportion of work that the EV does before the ICE kicks in? In other words, there would not be an "EV only switch," and instead the Prius would always be in hybrid mode.

i hope the release will be even sooner

this was official from toyota about their next year plans, they are speeding up hybrids and electric vehicles...

Has Toyota announced the actual specs for the PHEV Prius? How fast will it go in EV mode? How far will it go on grid power before using gas? Unlike some of the above posters, who merely want better mileage for their gas, I want a car that can drive on grid power alone up to some reasonable distance. Ideally, all in-town driving, including freeway, is grid powered, and gasoline only begins to burn when you take a road trip.

With a very short EV range, plug-in becomes pointless. What's the point of plugging in if it only saves you an ounce of gasoline per charge? Added battery capacity seems to give the Prius better FE, and that's good. But plug-in is useful when it means that a significant portion of your driving is powered by the grid: Imagine driving on grid electricity 11 months of the year, and only burning gas for your yearly vacation to Baja.

I save 3/4 of a gallon of gas every time I drive downtown in my Xebra instead of my Prius. That's because the Xebra plugs in and runs on grid power. If the Prius did that, I would not need two separate cars, one for city and one for road trips.

I couldn't agree with you more! Toyota really needs to take the next step to meet the needs of the consumer. They have done very well so far, but they need to take that next step soon.

For plug-in to be of any use, it would require a very large battery capacity. Assuming regen braking, that battery should indeed be able to capture a lot of energy on downhills. The real question is whether Toyota is going to give the PHEV Prius enough battery capacity to make plug-in worthwhile. Right now battery capacity is expensive, and for the mass market, cost is a big factor. However, as gas prices rise, the cost differential between gas and electricity will make batteries more appealing. Without a major breakthrough in electric storage, it may be a few years before gas prices rise enough to convince consumers to pay the extra cost for batteries.

Daniel, thank you. You answered my question, and the answer is that "EV mode" is a step towards fully-electric cars, independent of petroleum. (except for a backup generator - in which case, we may be able to use biodiesel)

Hasta La Vista OPEC !

The plugin could be very useful for some people even with only the hybrid battery. You can for example have the battery constantly topped up so you get the best performance immediately when you start driving the next day.

The plugin is also NOT useless with a 10mile charge-depleting battery. This is for example within the range of my working place. I will drive completely electric one way and in hybrid mode on the way back (every day of the week).

Much more important that the plugin Prius will probably be designed to be completely without the ICE and handle as normal car in EV mode. Conversion kits based on that platform will not bump into the limitations of the current Prius. As far as I know, the PGP will be higway capable in EV mode.

Is this your personal speculation, or has Toyota made an announcement about this? I ask because I was pretty much cut off for the past two months. I had internet access, but it was too slow for anything but checking my email and posting a very few pictures. So I may have missed an announcement. But I was not aware of anything official from Toyota. Just a lot of unfounded speculation from folks who watch the auto industry.

+1.

The majority of my errands are within 5-6 miles. 10 mile range would let me do most of my errands on battery. Could do the whole thing if the shops I frequented had charging stations.

My commute is a bit over 20 miles, so 10 mile range would reduce fuel consumption by 25%, and reduce it by 50% if I can plug-in at work. And I'm looking to move within 10 miles of work so when that happens I could potentially do the whole commute on electricity.

Other trips that are significantly farther than that occur very infrequently, perhaps a dozen times a year or so, and then they tend to be between 100-500 miles so we'd need a huge pack to have any significant portion of those trips use electric power.

Though I do admit, that with 20 mile electric range, that would probably cover well over 90% of the driving I do.