Earlier this December Toyota Motor Corp made official announcement about producing a test fleet of plug-in hybrid car Prius which uses lithium-on battery packs.  Now, the Japanese automaker Toyota has officially showcased the plug-in version of the latest Toyota Prius electric-gasoline hybrid vehicle along with its extended range of completely electric vehicle.

Plug-in technology facilitates charging of batteries in the hybrid from the mains in a fashion similar to the straight electric cars.  The major advantage of plug-in hybrid when compared with a standard hybrid is that it can it run in the electric-only mode for a longer time, and produces much lower tail-pipe emissions.

The Japanese car makerToyota plans to sell the plug-in hybrid Prius in Japan and other countries within 2 years.  Toyota Motor Corp has now officially started a program to manufacture and sell 650 plug-in hybrid Prius vehicles globally.  Japanese automaker will lease out 230 of its vehicles to government bodies like power companies and other government industries in Japan.  Out of Remaining stock, 150 units will be leased out to government agencies, research agencies, corporations and universities of America.  200 vehicles will go to Europe while France will receive 100 units especially for the City of Strasbourg.  Toyota is also considering other countries like Canada, New Zealand and Australia and few European countries to try out its test units.

The 5 seater Toyota Prius is available with lithium-ion battery packs replacing the usual nickel-metal hydride batteries which can help electric-motor vehicles to gain more mileage than usual thirteen miles.  One can easily charge batteries of plug-in Prius by connecting it to household electricity.

The fuel efficiency of Prius is 57 km/liter and plug-in hybrid Prius gives the range of about 24 km/liter using only electricity. To fully charge lithium-on batteries of Prius it takes about 1&1/2 hours using 200 volt socket whereas with 100 volt batteries it takes about 3 hours.

According to Toyota, this program is their 1st step i introducing plug-in hybrid concept to society at large.  This program allows Toyota with this unique opportunity to educate, inform, and also prepare their customers for the introduction of plug-in hybrid technology.  When vehicles built with this technology come to the market, customers would understand what to expect and whether this new technology would suit them.

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