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Posted By Kurt on July 20, 2011

In addition to bringing its to this month’s , Toyota has also announced that it will be unveiling a plug-in concept of the ever-popular Prius hybrid.

Earlier this year Toyota gave us on the car, including that it will be limited to only 500 units in its initial production run —150 of which will come to the U.S.—and will use the automaker’s first generation of lithium-ion batteries.

Now the plug-in Prius is near production-ready. Reportedly capable of traveling at highway speeds and approximately 12 miles on electric power only, the vehicle simply reverts to traditional hybrid operation once it’s out of juice.

While no specific sale date has been announced as of yet, we’re told that Toyota will begin delivering customer vehicles late this year. While the initial run will be leased to fleet customers for gathering real-world test data—and therefore won’t

really be available to the public—technological hurdles and expense will likely preclude large-scale production for the foreseeable future. That said, Toyota will likely ramp up production as costs come down and the technologies hit their strides. The company is already working on the second generation of the lithium-ion batteries, which would presumably increase the car’s range and efficiency.

Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/news/car/09q3/2010_toyota_prius_plug-in_hybrid_concept-official_photos_and_info

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