Toyota Plug-In Prius at Frankfurt Auto Show

As someone who has always been passionate about keeping our planet green, as well as being as eco-friendly as possible, I always knew there would be a car that came along that was greener than the Toyota Prius. I just didn’t know it would be the Toyota Prius. Just unveiled at the Frankfurt Auto Show is the Prius plug-in hybrid.

Plug-in hybrids will go on sale at a your local Prius Waukegan dealer within a few years. That fact seems inevitable now. Chevy’s coming out with the Volt, and Ford has an electric version of the Focus, and now Toyota has officially joined the game with its Plug-in Prius concept car. Now that Toyota has entered the fray, the plug-in era seems to be in full swing. 

The Plug-in Toyota Prius was introduced to the world at the Frankfort Auto Show. This Prius can be plugged into a normal household outlet and recharge in just 90 minutes. The maximum range, when running solely on electric power, is 12 miles, after that it will run on gasoline just like any traditional hybrid.

Next year Toyota will have 500 test vehicles that will come out worldwide to see what the experience of driving this Plug-in Hybrid is really like for the consumer. The hybrid powertrain is identical to the new Prius powertrain, except for the batteries. The plug-in will have lithium-ion batteries while the standard Prius still packs nickel hydride.

While Toyota’s Plug-in Prius is still a concept car, it shouldn’t be too long before we’re plugging Prius models into garage outlets. I wish Toyota’s concept electric Prius’ were coming out in full production sooner because I would head right over to my local Libertyville Toyota dealership and trade-up for one. For now, I’ll keep driving my current Prius that I purchased from Waukegan new car dealer last fall.