Toyota has dangled the plug-in version of its popular Prius hybrid in front of the world for almost two years, and it will finally unveil the production car at this fall’s Frankfurt auto show. Toyota first showed off a “concept” Prius PHEV at the 2009 Frankfurt auto show, and we even drove one last year; so the plug-in Prius likely will offer few surprises over what we already know.
Toyota did include a few technical specifications and performance figures in its announcement of the Prius PHEV. The hybrid’s electric bits will be powered by a lithium-ion battery instead of the regular Prius’s nickel-metal hydride pack, and Toyota claims the car should consume fuel at a rate of 2.2 liters/100 km on the optimistic European cycle, which translates to 107 mpg over here. The company didn’t reveal whether that is an mpge figure for when the car is operating in electric-only mode, but either way, don’t count on actually seeing numbers that high in the real world. The Chevrolet Volt, which has vastly superior electrical operation, earns an EPA-rated 93 mpge combined in electric mode.
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