1. Next Gen Prius to have 67% larger NiMH battery with 71 MPG (vs. 50 MPG current Gen)
2. New Prius to cost $500 more in 2009
3. Toyota to boost Prius output by 70%

In more details:

1. Quoting the article at http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=44746:

Toyota’s current NiMH battery, which is a direct descendant of the original NiMH battery invented by Energy Conversion Devices, Inc., in the 1980s and licensed for manufacturing and use in vehicle propulsion to Toyota in the mid 1990s. It requires at least 12 kg (26 lbs) of the rare-earth metal, lanthanum, per Prius-sized battery. Today’s Prius, utilizing such a battery, has a range of 500 miles on a 10.1 gallon tank of fuel at a top speed (capability) of over 90 miles per hour. Prius has very low emissions unmatched for its size, weight, and “cargo capacity (825 lbs),” until the recent introduction of 4-cylinder turbo-diesel-powered small cars by several European manufacturers. Reportedly the next generation Prius, due in 2009, will use a larger NiMH battery to achieve a fuel economy of 71 miles per gallon; it will require a battery made with 20 kg (44 lbs) of lanthanum.

….It is important that you know that every hybrid vehicle today mass produced for sale by Toyota, Honda, GM, Ford, and Chrysler utilizes a nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) battery. Even more importantly you need to know that in the 2007 model year GM made or sold 9,000 ‘hybrid’ vehicles and that all 9,000 were recalled to replace a defective NiMH battery. In the same year Toyota sold more than 250,000 Priuses and there is no report of any 2007 model year battery failure. Note well that Toyota makes its own NiMH batteries in-house and that GM buys its battery components from a Japanese manufacturer-not Toyota-and has them assembled by the joint venture between Chevron and Energy Conversion Devices, Inc called COBASYS, which has been in existence for most of the twenty-first century, has burned through more than $200 million of Chevron’s money and has never made a profit! General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler have been forced to try to develop a lithium-ion technology based vehicle for the simple reason that due to mismanagement and short sighted planning they have no way whatsoever to obtain either the critical raw materials for, or NiMH batteries themselves. GM, for example, is only trying to make an expensive niche market lithium-ion plug-in hybrid, because it, through its own shortsightedness, cannot make a Prius fighter based on NiMH technology

….There is no longer any way for GM, Ford, or Chrysler to compete in the mass-produced, profitably sold, hybrid-powered vehicle market. These companies can only hope to survive as mass marketers of small diesel-powered cars and freight vehicles. Toyota and Honda are now and will remain the world’s auto giants….

Toyota does not want GM, Ford, and Chrysler to fail any time soon, because it fears that its capacity will not be able to capture enough of the cascade of market share with which it could be deluged.

2. According to press release by Toyota which can be found at: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080725/toyota_price_increases.html?.v=1

3. Article available at: http://www.autonews.com/article/20080725/COPY01/448002161/1176

Special thanks to Priuschat.com for the info.

p.s. it also happens for me to live in the country with the worse roads in the world.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21903270@N00/sets/72157594419693928/detail/

[photo while my girlfriend was driving... lol]

The place is at the southest point of Peloponissos, Greece known as the fossil forest. The route was 12 Kms of really bad road full of stones and great up/down hills.

Prius performed as a usual car on the road. However, I did have a problem with a great uphill because I stopped in the middle of it. Doing so, I couldn’t continue from there so I had to go reverse and try it again with some speed.