The latest Toyota Prius continues to innovate over its earlier generations. In fact the latest one would be the one thats arriving in 2010. Its going to take emissions to a whole new level with a mere 100 grams per kilometer. Its a reduction over the previous versions , but what dissappoints me is that Toyota engineers claim that they could have gone much lower ; if not for the power requirements.

This means that the car has better performance in terms of top speed and pick-up ; not something that I think we have the luxury of indulging in if we truly wish to make a difference.

But given that a Prius owner is already doing something about reducing their carbon footprints - which is definitely more than what the rest of us driving around in their beat up decade old cars do ; I reckon we should cut them a bit off slack. Coming back to the 2010 Prius (not to be confusde with the plug-in version thats being developed for 2011) ; the car gets a bigger engine of 1.8 liters , yet as mentioned earlier manages to reduce carbon emissions. Top speed of course has increased to 120 mph ( which also seems pointless, how many times do you get to go over 100 mph anyway?).

Toyota themselves say that it was done so as to increase the appeal of the car to the masses. But my humble opinion suggests that the Prius owner is already educated about the environment and driving fast at a high top speed is something he knows wont help with eking out the last kilomter from every drop of fuel.

Source