2009 Prius to be bigger, heavier, faster, not plug-in

Via Ecogeek:

"After nearly 10 years of success with the car, Toyota wants to bring something new to the table. According to AutoObserver, the 2009 Prius will be bigger, longer, more powerful, and faster.

Fuel economy will increase as well. But a bigger engine and body mean that the heavier car will lose total efficiency, even if a slightly-improved hybrid system bumps the mileage up a few miles per gallon.

The good news is that Toyota seems to be looking at broadening the Prius line, making it into a kind of sub-brand. There might be a sub-compact version of the car, which could see very exciting mileage numbers. The manufacturer also is looking at creating a version for their Lexus brand that would be faster, larger, and less efficient.

I'm little disappointed in the lack of a plug-in option for this next-gen Prius, as well as Toyota's continuing reliance on nickel batteries. While lithium-ion remain in their sights, Toyota seems too fat and happy with their current dominance in hybrid technology to really be going after this new technology."

I agree it's unfortunate that Toyota won't be unveiling a plug-in version for the '09 Prius.  We'll just have to wait one more year.  It would be really cool to see them make a sub-compact plug-in Prius though!

 Yes, I'd love a sub-compact version!!  That'd be awesome if they started manufacturing different lines of Prius'... And I would really love to be able to afford the plug-in installation on my '07 model.  Hopefully that add-on will get cheaper, too??

It is too bad that Toyota isn't going plug-in in the US but they've pretty much always had the 2010 date for that, so I'm not surprised they didn't change their plans.  It'll be interesting to see if the bigger/heavier/faster Prius appeals to a different crowd looking for performance over efficiency.

There was talk for a while that they might make a plug-in with NiMh batteries for 2009, then have the option of upgrading them to lithium ion.  Unfortunately they didn't follow through with that.

I know Tesla's lithium ion.  Are the other electric cars going that route too?  It's too bad Toyota didn't put in some investment into that technology.  Could really help to get a company with that much money behind it.

Yeah pretty much everyone is going into lithium ion batteries.  GM (Chevy Volt), Toyota (plug-in Prius [2010]), Mitsubishi, Ford, Aptera, ZAP, Miles, Phoenix, Zenn, etc.