That's great! As long as build quality is as high, I'll be happy. Hope it will be plug-in.

Yeah, forget the solar panels but make the 2009 model a plugin. You listening Toyota?

Hopefully. this will also mean a reduction in price since they don't have an ocean to ship over... But I'm sure they'll find the import rise will have to be offset or something.

Hey Toyota, stop with the gimicks like solar panels and give us a Plug in option.

"Hopefully. this will also mean a reduction in price since they don't have an ocean to ship over..."

Yeah, some protectionist tarrifs will be gone, so there's that.

I heard that to make the hybrid cars, they use Nickel batteries. And in these battery production plants, they create huge environmental devastation. The energy cost of making a Prius is supposedly the highest in all the cars as well. Does anyone have anymore information on this?

This will let Toyota increase it's world supply of Pirus to meet demand.

"I heard that to make the hybrid cars, they use Nickel batteries. And in these battery production plants, they create huge environmental devastation. The energy cost of making a Prius is supposedly the highest in all the cars as well. Does anyone have anymore information on this?"

Current hybrids indeed use batteries that contain nickel. Next generation is probably moving to lithium-ion, which is non toxic.

What you need to know is that: Tons and tons of portable electronics use the same kind of batteries, not unique to hybrids.

In hybrids, the batteries actually help avoid thousands and thousands of gallons of fuel being burned, which is a lot more energy than what it takes to make the battery.

At the end of its life, they actually pay you to recycle the battery. It's not wasted or landfilled.

Don't believe the anti-hybrids who will try to make you swallow that hybrids are worse than other cars. Simply not true. They are far from perfect, but better cars that are 1/3 to 1/2 as efficient and that have tailpipe emissions that are much worse.

Green Geenie- yes nickel mining is ugly and the carbon footprint of a Prius will be higher than say a Yaris. But a battery isnt the only thing to consider when judging the environmental 'cost' of building a car. Nickel batteries are on their way out, Lithium based batteries should replace most of the nickel ones within a few years.
All that being said, the total carbon footprint of a vehicle during its life is 80-90% based on fuel consumption. Most of the original car (including the batteries) can be recycled. 10+ years of burning fuel cant.

Plug ins are not the answer right now, we can't support having fleets of hybrid owners plugging their cars in at the moment. The idea of solar panels is strange I will agree but at least it is an attempt to take the load off the grid, for plug ins, and to reduce fuel consumption just a little more. Once our countries power is not produced by coal and oil we can then move to plug in electric cars, which I'm all for, but until we have better means to create our electricity, or cleaner, we need to avoid large quantities of plug in cars.

"Plug ins are not the answer right now, we can't support having fleets of hybrid owners plugging their cars in at the moment. "

Please cite your sources, anonymous.

First, plug-ins wouldnt appear by the tens of millions overnight. Like hybrids, it would take a little while. So better start ASAP.

As for the grid not being able to take plug-ins, that's the opposite of what a recent study that was mentioned on treehugger said. Even better: they figured out that if plug ins were charged at night, only one or two new power plants would need to be built. That would be much more than offset by the tons and tons of gas that wasn't burnt.

and the grid is not a static thing anyway. If demand increases, that will encourage more supply to be built. I'd rather have a few more power plants and millions less ICEs spewing pollution... And since we'll probably have some restrictions on carbon soon, new power plants probably won't be coal. With a smart grid, would could even have plug ins know when to charge (ie. when wind is blowing so that there's a surplus coming from wind farms, etc).

Mark, ron ,and James K.T., I agree with you whole-heartedly. But even if Toyota delays having a plug-in option (though why they would I have no idea) and goes with the solar panels, I say thank god they're increasing production of the prius. Yay!

@ James K.T.

Working at a power company in the Southeast, we've found that while shifting more load towards to night time non-peaking hours is great on the plants, it has wreaked some havoc on our transformers and transmissions during hot spells. The transformers usually get a chance to cool down at night but have not been getting that chance around some factories that have shifted their peak hours to the night time. This has caused a few transformers explosions recently.

Julius, thank for that info. That's interesting.

Still, I think that the reasoning here should be "is that problem bigger than the problem we would solve".

Maybe that problem you speak of wouldn't be a problem everywhere (depends on the equipment? weather?). And if it is a big problem, replacing that equipment or upgrading it would probably still be a fairly small thing (especially if plug-ins come on line gradually, just a few thousands per month) compared to the major benefits of using vastly less oil.

But thanks for sharing!

JuliusJ-

I was just talking to someone here in VT that runs an Electric Co-Op and he said that one of the big issues with plug-in hybrids, geothermal heating systems and all the electric technologies is that power companies haven't upgraded technology in years and a lof of their equipment won't be able to handle the extra load. Power companies in VT are upgrading technology in advance of technologies like the plug-in hybrid and encourageing residential and commercial renewable energy installations to try to make as much local power as possible.

I own a 2007 green prius. I can't wait for their to be a solar option. if they offer one, it will be time to trade it in. I live in an apartment so have a solar option would be optimal for me. also I read an interesting article about how the prius batteries last as long as they do because they are never completely discharged and fully recharged.

best of luck to all....!

As a native Mississippian, I'm tickled to see the Prius will be built in a state where there is hardly any recylcling going on.

I just visited the assembly plant for the all-electric off-road vehicle, the Bad Boy Buggy, in Natchez, Mississippi.

I like the solar panel idea. My Prius sits in a parking lot where it receives lots of sunshine during the day while I am at work. So it would be easy to build a solar panel into the roof to recharge the battery. The only concern I would have is during thunderstorms when there is hail present.

I think it would also help if they put the switch in the car so I could run it entirely off the battery pack while driving at low speeds and short errands around town. They have this feature built into the production vehicle in Japan. I know they sell conversion kits, but I'll wait until my warranty is out before I do this conversion on my current vehicle.

I wonder if anyone has thought about harnessing the wind power that is created while the vehicle is moving. I guess the downside to this would be the drag created by the ports that would have to rise slightly above the car to intake the air to move the fans that would generate power to the battery.

We only buy vehicles that are assembled in the USA. That was the only obstacle to us owning a Prius. We will be buying TWO of the 2011 MADE-IN-AMERICA Priuses!

One purchase that cuts air pollution, reduces Islamofascist profits (Saudis & Iran), and CREATES JOBS FOR AMERICANS. Love it!

What a bunch of pansies are here.

If someone switches an oil furnace to a high efficiency heat pump, do we expect complaints that the grid isn't up to par and the power now comes from coal? No,
We recognize then someone does a good thing for the environment and expect the power companies to upgrade to the better technology we know is available.

A plug in car is lower on carbon even if you take the "long tailpipe" and get all the electricity from coal. Really, most new power can be generated from Wind and other renewable sources to generate zero pollution.