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Back in August we told you Lexus plans to unveil a new hybrid-only model at the Detroit Auto Show in January at the same time as the reveal of the new third-generation 2010 Toyota Prius . Now, a newly published rendering from Japanese buff book Mag-X may give us some clues of what to expect from a car they claim will be badged as the Lexus HS250h. We'll let Mag-X take it from here: The drawing reveals a well-proportioned four-door car with Prius-like lines and angles—especially the front slope of its windshield and hood—while retaining design cues which are unmistakably Lexus, most notably the back-end and taillight styling. The publication says the Lexus HS250h will most likely be outfitted with the 2.4-liter engine and electric motor combo found in the Toyota Camry Hybrid, and share many of the same mechanicals as that car. This includes the current-generation nickel metal hydride battery. Carrying over the powertrain would be significantly more cost-effective than developing an entirely...
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There's an idea kicking around in the egghead community about a notion called V2G, or vehicle to grid, where parked hybrid or electric cars would be plugged into the city grid and used as a distributed power storage medium. Car owners would collect a fee as the cars would be used as a buffer to store power generated in off hours for use during peak times. The concept would do away with the need for backup generators and further offset the higher costs of hybrids. What the idea won't do is work without ginormous cross industrial and governmental standardization the likes of which will never be seen in the United States. To Europe, eggheads! [ LiveScience ]
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Chrysler's actually getting a little non- financiapocalyptic press today with the announcement that the Chrysler Aspen hybrid and Dodge Durango hybrid have managed an EPA-estimated 20 MPG city and 22 MPG highway rating. Coupled to the 5.7L Hemi V8 with cylinder-deactivation capability, the powertrain is good for 385 HP and 380 lb-ft of torque. The two-mode gas-electric hybrid system used in the Aspen and Durango is fundamentally the same as that used in the Chevy Tahoe hybrid and, while not Prius smooth, we can attest to it providing a great blend of performance and economy in our tester. [Chrysler]
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If our sources at Green Hybrid are correct, this is a teaser for the upcoming 2010 Toyota Prius . No, really. Of course, we'd be surprised if anybody actually felt any sensation of anticipation from this photo. Who knew Toyota could release an even worse teaser than the first one ? Although this shot does finally confirm speculation at least one part of the vehicle is capable of being opened and closed. Fascinating. We're going to take a nap now. galleryPost('ToyotaPriusSpy', 3, 'Old 2011 Toyota Prius Spy Shots'); [via GreenHybrid ]
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The new Toyota Prius was caught this morning driving again through the streets of San Francisco. We've seen the 2011 Toyota Prius testing in SF before, but never with such camera phone graininess. See if you can glean anything from this new shot. We know we can't. galleryPost('ToyotaPriusSpy', 3, 'Old 2011 Toyota Prius Spy Shots'); (Thanks Nick!)
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Car And Driver realizes that while hybrids and alternative fuels may get all the hype, the solution for many people on fuel economy is still the simple old econo-bucket beater. However, they've come up with five reasons why buying something like a cheap old Geo Metro isn't a good idea. Car And Driver makes some valid points, but we're thinking we'd still rather have a old beater. Although our five reasons below the jump won't apply to most consumers — we think maybe consumers should just become more like us. Reliability: Sure, an old Geo may not be as reliable as a brand new Toyota, Chevy or Ford, but it's still more reliable than say, an old MG. Besides, "poor reliability" is just another way of saying "lots of character," and who doesn't want to have a car with a personality? Safety: Yes, a rusty Metro make a Brilliance look like a tank, but who's to say you can't install a roll cage and wear a fire-proof suit and a helmet...
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When we reported on lengthy fuel lines in Houston after Hurricane Ike, we made an off-hand joke about Prius owners no longer being a target of ridicule for truck owners. Walking our way to the coffee shop we now call home we noticed, amid the trucks, a lowly first-gen Honda Insight waiting to fill up. Damon Reed, the owner of the little hybrid, didn't seem to be too worried about the gas lines. Reed says he's been getting up to 60 miles on a gallon of gas while driving around suburban Houston and this is the first time since the Hurricane, which struck late Friday night, that he's gone to the gas station. He still had half a tank, but this particular gas station recently reopened and the line was therefore not as long as it had previously been. Though drivers in large trucks physically look down on Reed, he claims that, for the most part, people are merely curious about the vehicle. His entire family drives hybrids so they're doing better than many in the area. Unfortunately...
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As everyone in the automotive media was crawling over the production Volt yesterday, Automotive News reports that Toyota was complaining to congressional leaders about the vehicle. Namely, about pending legislation that seems to benefit the new Chevy plug-in to the detriment of others, particularly the upcoming Prius plug-in . At issue is a tax package that would make tax credits available to plug-ins with at least 6 kilowatt-hours of stored electric power — a level the Volt would reportedly reach but other plug-in hybrids currently planned would not. Jalopnik Snap Judgment: Since credits could reach as high as $7,500 for light-duty vehicles, the potential impact of the legislation is significant; however, if Toyota brings in a competitive product for less money than the Volt would cost, even with tax breaks figured in, we'd imagine the impact on their bottom line would be minimal. Knowing Toyota, that's exactly what they plan to do, but we certainly can't blame them for...
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In an interview with a German newspaper, BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer has confirmed that a small city car is being developed to cope with future European and American regulations for fuel economy and pollution. But we're talking about more than just an electric Mini here. This will be an entirely new vehicle which will come with either a "very efficient combustion engine" or a pure electric powertrain. Of the standards it will meet will be a California regulation which mandates fuel cell or battery-powered vehicles to have a range of over 200 miles by the year 2012. But the burning question is, what will the car be called? The first thing that pops into our head when we hear talk of a small BMW city car that's completely different from the rest of the range is "Isetta," and that's said to still be a possibility. It would certainly be a more appealing name than 0-Series. BMW has had plenty of retro small car experience with the Mini brand, but a more forward...
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It's hard not to think the new Honda Insight hybrid and the Toyota Prius look like kissing cousins. But, while both are five-door hatches sharing similar profiles, cut lines and green-tinged halos... they've got vastly different designs. Below the jump, we've detailed seven of the literally tens of differences between the two happy hybrids. And yes, we're even including the big "H" on the front of the 2010 Honda Insight . Difference #1: Instead of going with the stylized T, as on the Prius, the new Insight has a very defined H above the grille. This is a difference of 11 letter positions in the alphabet and a sign that Honda is the true Maverick in this race. Difference #2: The Toyota Prius is very noticeable from the rear because of its squarer clear taillights housing red LED lights. The engineers from Honda have focused on a more angular look for their clear taillights with red LED lights. Difference #3: Honda stepped out with some fairly trick split five-spoke...
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In a terrifying, post-apocalyptic, doomsday scenario envisioned by the brains at the IBM Institute for Business Value, every new car on the market in 2020 would be some kind of a hybrid. Not only that, but they project cars which communicate, avoiding accidents and taking over certain driving tasks. The findings were published in a paper, ominously titled "Automotive 2020: Clarity Beyond the Chaos," after the consulting branch of Big Blue interviewed 125 auto execs across the globe. This dismal future of fuel efficiency and dangerously silent cities can only be battled with vigilance and your buying dollars. Imagine a world where hippies fall into deep depressions after their banner method of communicating moral superiority becomes commonplace; muscle-car fiends sit on the floors of garages everywhere, weeping into their now-pointless toolboxes. Where you don't drive, your car drives you. The horror... the horror. [ Wired ]
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Nissan yesterday unveiled prototypes for both a new all-electric powertrain vehicle as well as the first pictures of a prototype hybrid powertrain built on an Infiniti G35. Both systems would be run off a new lithium-ion battery pack system. galleryPost('nissanenvirotech', 9, 'Nissan Blinds Us With Science'); We knew Nissan was working on a new electric car and yesterday the company revealed that the FWD platform will use a new high-density Li-Ion pack that sits underneath the floor (and out of the way) providing power to an 80 kW motor. Though we still expect a Denki Cube , the new flagship electric vehicle will now apparently not be based on any current platform. The new parallel drive hybrid system in the Infiniti features an electric motor coupled with a gasoline engine like most other HEV systems. Similar to the Lexus LS600h , the Nissan version involves a larger engine, in this case a V6, powering the rear vehicles. In order to achieve more linear acceleration, there...
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Honda has been diligently working on its Toyota Prius -fighter, a dedicated Honda hybrid expected to go on sale early in 2009. But they recently pulled out the trump card in this battle royal — a starting price of just $18,500. The five-door, five-passenger hybrid-only car will get to that low, low price point by using a greatly simplified — and 50% cheaper — version of its Integrated Motor Assist hybrid system. Seems the mileage wars are really starting to heat up. galleryPost('NewHondaHybridSpy', 6, 'Prius Shaped Honda Hybrid Testing Out In The Desert'); Jalopnik Snap Judgment: Considering the Honda hybrid will be coming in a whopping $3,000 less than the base Prius and will wear the depreciation-proof Honda badge, we're betting the number one super-best automaker from the land of the rising sun will be redoubling efforts on its 2010 Toyota Prius . Within three years, we'll be looking at volume sales of high-mileage offerings from Toyota, Honda...
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It looks like the crafty car spies of KGP caught up again with the Honda engineering team in the hot desert sands out west. Just in the nick of time to take an exclusive first set of shots of Honda's new Prius-fighting hybrid. We don't know much about it other than we knew the boys from Honda had something in development to sit on top of Honda's hybrid hierarchy — in the slot just above the 2009 Honda Civic hybrid sedan we saw earlier today. We also know it'll be a global model. Otherwise, you're on your own. Hit the jump for the spy report. galleryPost('NewHondaHybridSpy', 8, 'Honda Hybrid Heating Up In Summer Sun'); We just caught Honda's hybrid-only model that's designed to take on the Toyota Prius. The shape and packaging of this prototype is clearly Prius-inspired, although the overall size looks larger than Toyota's hybrid favorite. The test group consisted of a Toyota Prius, Honda's facelifted Civic Hybrid, and this prototype...
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GM is accelerating development of the 2010 Chevy Volt in an attempt to ready the production version to reveal as the company celebrates its 100th anniversary in September. Although we know GM desperately needs a cutting-edge Prius-killing success to stem the sales slide, given past RenCen rush jobs, we're not sure that setting a time deadline instead of a performance benchmark is the best way to move forward. A look at potential pitfalls after the jump. Exploding batteries: Remember the flaming plug-in Prius from a few weeks ago? No, that wasn't a manufacturer-sanctioned ride, but it still plainly shows the dangers inherent in releasing unproven technology. The fact that GM has yet to name a supplier for Volt's lithium-ion battery pack is another red flag for the power source. Embarrassing show mishaps: GM needs a win...and they need it to be a clean win, both on the stage and showroom floor. No panels falling off, stalls, massive oil leaks, fires, or collapsing spokes-robots...
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