Besides Toyota, other manufacturers are also aggressively marketing the hybrid car is Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co.. Honda has sold 770 thousand hybrid cars this year, while Nissan variant leaf off 17,500 units worldwide. In Japan, this car is in demand as the country's government has built public facilities for electric charge.Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. started selling the Toyota Prius hybrid sedan premiere Plug In yesterday. Vehicle that is claimed to energy efficient and environmentally friendly is released at a price of 3.2 million yen (U.S. $ 41 thousand).
According to Executive Vice President of Toyota, Takeshi Uchiyamada, Plug In Japan sales expected to reach 40 thousand units a year. While global sales forecast penetrate up to 60 thousand units. In America and Europe, the official named sedan Prius PHV this will be released at a price of us $ 32 thousand and 37 thousand euros.
Takeshi said, this car is specially designed for consumers who want an electric-powered cars that are environmentally friendly, but worry about running out of energy on the road. "This car is a hybrid vehicle of the future," he said as quoted by the Associated Press Tuesday, November 29, 2011.
Prius Plug In will initially be marketed middle of next year. Prototypes of electric and gasoline-powered sedan was first introduced at the Frankfurt Motorshow in September 2009.
This vehicle is predicted to hit because it has an electrical power source is quite large, powerful lithium ion batteries made by Panasonic 4.4 kilowatt hours that can be refilled for 90 to 180 minutes. When running with gasoline, this battery is automatically re-filled. Mileage of electric power reached 14.3 miles or 23 kilometers.
Until now, Toyota has sold more than 3.4 million hybrid car worldwide. In addition to the Prius, they also offer a hybrid variant of the Toyota Yaris and Lexus RX series, GS, CT and HS.
