They can increase the effective MPG even more if they make it a plug in hybrid. The first 30 miles will be on energy gotten from the grid which is much more fuel efficient than energy generated by the ICE.

 

I heard about this a couple of years ago, and I was wondering when they were gonna release it.

 

I want one! I dont really care about performance out of a daily driver anymore...the xB did that to me lolzzz.

 

WOW. If they released a cheaper Prius that got 100 mpg.. sorry xA... I'd HAVE TO get one!!

 

plug in conversions are already available to prius diy'ers. costs 3k-10k depending upon parts and labor. that will get you 100mpg today.

 

my next car will be whatever Hybrid is in the Scion line.... Although my payments are up in 2009 for my box and that prius sounds very tempting.....

 

For anyone who thinks that the '09 Prius will see anywhere near 100 MPG, I have some prime beachfront property in Alaska to sell you.

Oh, and gas was under $1 per gallon about 6 years ago. How freaking young are you people??

 

I'd sport one.

 

The article's math appears to be screwed up somewhere. 35km/l is about 82mpg, not 99, and 40km/l is about 94mpg, not 113.

According to the folks reporting their fuel efficiency at fueleconomy.gov, real-world Prius mileage is about 47mpg (and Corolla mpg about 35). So if the Japanese gov't claims the Prius gets 82mpg now, that means you can divide by ~1.7 to get a more realistic number.

If Toyota bumps the Prius up to Japanese gov't-rated 40km/l, that'll be about 54mpg in the real world. Nothing to sneeze at, to be sure, especially if they manage to drop the price by a few K$. But not quite as jaw-on-the-floor radical as the article's title. "54mpg Prius in the works for 2009" would make most folks go "Huh? I thought that's what it's supposed to get now." And they'd be right.

Jeez. You'd think I'd have better things to do with my time. And you'd be right.

 

IMO, the ultimate purpose of these hybrids are lower emissions (AT-Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle). You can always get better MPG when comparing hybrids to their ICE counterpart (Prius vs. Echo/Vitz..etc). Diesels get way more MPG but produces higher emissions.

 

Wow this is awesome! I can't wait to see the oil companies cry!

 

Does anyone know if they reworked the system for the epa mpg ratings yet?
If i can recall correctly, the test were done at 45 mph and they were just reading the emissions from the exhaust to get the mpg rating.

Here is the thing that gets me about hybrids, the end product is great and will save money on gas in the long run, but the production cost for making a hybrid and the disposal cost (ie, the batteries) create more polution than the production and disposal of a 'conventional' car.

Todays hybrids work of regenerative braking so the battery charges when the brakes applies. But a plug in hybrid has been done however it involves voiding the warrenty, (i read it in a past post here on scionlife)

A sports hybrid has been done and it is a fun ride,
search for l3enigma in an search engine.
this is how hybrids should behave minus all the money.

heres a link to the main sites products:
http://www.l3research.com/html/products.html

 

there will be people inside the engine room manually generating power.

 

actually....

 

in actual day-to-day driving tests, the prius got an average of 1 mpg better than the corolla. 39 vs. 38.
the prius is 6k more ubt the corolla has what 35+ more hp, nicer interior, smoother ride, it beats it in every way and in 5+ years that prius would probably cost a hella of lot to fix/maintain. The comparison I read said if you want near the advertised mileage, prepare to accelarate slower than anyone would think and maintain <55 mph.

Actually I drive a Prius 120 miles a day round trip in New England. I average about 54mpg. Can usually get almost 600 miles on a tank of gas. I've gotten these numbers consistently for 56,000 miles now.

I also test drove a Corolla, but it was much cheaper feeling inside and didn't have the navigation computer that my Prius has. You can't really compare the two. The Prius has a much higher end feel than the Corolla. The Corolla is great too, but for the amount of time I spend in my car the added gas mileage and extra "toys" of the bluetooth and nav. computer made it win out in the end.

I drive a mix of highway and back roads, so I really have no idea what those people that claim their Prius gets 39 mpg are doing. Are they leadfoots? If not, then they should get into a dealership and check out their car.

 

"the prius doesn't even get its sticker labeled MPG today,"

No car does, unless you drive only 55 mph or less, with the air conditioning always off.


The EPA's tests are seriously out of date.

 

100MPG...

Now, I know braking recharges the battery, but how about wind or sun that's being deflected?.. Is there no harnessing those elements?.. Just something I've been pondering.

 

i'm sure you can slap a windmill on there. no, but i get your point. our college has a solar powered vehicle which is covered in black solar tiles. i don't know how stylish this would look. plus, you can imagine the repair costs associated with that. although perhaps having the roof alone covered in black solar tiles is a possibility. heck, our tC's already have a glass roof. it's not that much of a stretch.

 

I think you should have rephrased your comment. In the face of global warming and pollution, if we keep going on this gas guzzling run, the world will come to an end. Sadly yes, even if we drive Scions - the truth is, we're just lower on the list of being the suffocaters of Earth. How good is HP when you can't use it?
In the good old days, families had one or no cars per household. I think it's averaged that each household now owns 2-3 cars. I know my extended family has one for almost each kid who can drive. I wonder if they know about public transportation . . .
Did you know that cars run at a ridiculously low efficiency level in terms of work? ~ 10%

 

Yup i knew that., but i heard 15 -20% of the energy is used at all. the problem is how to harnes that lost energy.