Toyota Prius Joins Berlin's Eco Fleet of Police Cars

Toyota is participating in the Berlin Police force's efforts to go green by providing an initial batch of three Prius hybrids for its "Initiative 120" program that calls for the use of alternative fuel and low CO2 emission cars.

In the first phase of "Initiative 120", the Berlin police will use a total of eleven vehicles that also include two examples of each of these models: the Opel Ampera extended range EV, the Renault Fluence sedan Z.E and Kangoo Van Z.E., and the Mitsubishi i-MiEV hatchback.

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New Toyota Prius V Minivan Sales Off to a Good Start in the States

With the presentation of the Prius V minivan last year, Toyota effectively gave birth to a new sub-brand of models borrowing the name of its first hybrid vehicle.

The move has proved to be successful with Toyota revealing that it sold 8,399 units of the Prius V from the last week of October (that's when it arrived in dealerships across the States) through the end of December 2011, according to Carly Schaffner, a spokesperson for the automaker.

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Refreshed 2012 Toyota Prius Priced from £21,350 in Britain

Toyota has released UK pricing on its subtly facelifted Prius hybrid that goes on sale this March. The 2012 model is offered in three trim levels with on-the-road prices ranging from £21,350to £24,620.

Revealed last September at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the 2012 Prius gains some modest improvements inside and out.

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So You Never Want to Leave Your Toyota Prius, do You?

If you are asking us whether someone has been creative with a ton of snow, the answer is no. If you are viewing this bizarre build from the side and wondering if this is some sort of humorous phallic statement, the answer once again is -you guessed it- no.

So what in the blazes is it, we hear you ask? Well, it's a Toyota Prius camper van conversion and it was unwrapped (or so to speak) at this weekend's 2012 Tokyo Auto Salon with NAPAC. And no, we are not pulling your leg – it does exist and it's available for order.

It's the wacky creation of Campinn, which specializes in these sort of builds. The transformation from going green to living in green involves the addition of a huge lump on top of the Prius, which is made entirely of Fibre-Reinforced Plastic (FRP) and increases the hybrid's length to 4,980mm (196-in.) and height to 2,050mm (81.1-in.).

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TRD Spices up New Toyota Aqua / Prius C Hybrid with Sport Package in Japan

Toyota is losing no time in pushing out its aftermarket proposals for the all-new Aqua hybrid that will be marketed as the Prius C in markets outside of Japan and which will make its North American debut at the forthcoming Detroit Motor Show in January.

On the same day that the regular Aqua went on sale in its home market, Toyota's TRD racing and performance division announced a slew of tuning upgrades for the sub-compact hatchback.

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Colossal Supercar Pileup in Japan Destroys Eight Ferraris, Three Mercedes and a Lamborghini [Videos]

In what may be if not the worst, one of the nastiest and most expensive supercar crashes of all time, 14 vehicles including eight Ferraris, three Mercedes-Benzes, a Lamborghini, a Toyota Prius and an unspecified Toyota, were involved in a massive pile-up on the Chugoku expressway in Shimonoseki, southwestern Japan on Sunday.

Luckily, no fatalities were reported though ten drivers suffered bruising and some minor injuries.

“The accident occurred when the driver of a red Ferrari was switching from the right lane to the left and skidded,” Mitsuyoshi Isejima, executive officer for Yamaguchi Prefecture’s Expressway Traffic Police unit told Bloomberg News. “It was a gathering of narcissists," said Isejima who added that the drivers were aged between 37 and 60 years old.

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New Toyota FCV-R Fuel-Cell Concept Heading for Production in 2015 [Updated]

Toyota's conceptual products at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show are a bit more than crowd pleasers as both the FT-EV III mini and the FCV-R study pictured here, are slated to enter production.

The FCV-R is a next-generation fuel-cell concept model fueled by hydrogen that Toyota says is planned for launch in 2015.

According to the Japanese automaker, the fuel-cell unit is located beneath the specially designed body thus saving space with the concept being able to accommodate up to four passengers and their luggage.

The next generation fuel cell stack consists of a 70 MPa high-pressure hydrogen tank, which said to provide a driving range of approximately 700 km or about 435 miles.

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Toyota Introduces New Prius Family with a Bizarre Commercial [Video]

Coinciding with the announcement on pricing for the new 2012 Prius Plug-in Hybrid that will launch next spring and the new Prius V minivan that is set to go on sale this October, Toyota has unleashed a new campaign to promote the growing family of Prius models.

The new TV spot is named "People Person" and it was created by advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi.

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Toyota to Build Hybrid Drivetrains Outside of Japan in Four Years

Toyota has chosen to focus most of its resources on its hybrid models, and more specifically on the Prius “family” and Lexus lineup, in order to recover from this year’s earthquake and the subsequent, and quite substantial, decrease in global sales due to parts shortages.

Until now, Toyota manufactured all components of hybrid drivetrains, such as battery packs, electric motors and inverters only at its Japanese plants. The recent disaster has shown the vulnerability of the decision to put all of your eggs in one basket.

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Toyota Prices New 2012 Prius Plug-in from $32,760 and Prius V Minivan from $27,160

Toyota has released the full rundown on the pricing of the upcoming 2012 Prius Plug-in Hybrid and the five-passenger Prius V minivan.

The first-ever Prius Plug-in Hybrid, which combines the firm’s Hybrid Synergy Drive with a small lithium-ion battery to extend the electric-only driving range, starts at $32,000 not including a $760 processing and handling (DPH) fee that raises the price to $32,760, while the better equipped Advance trim model will have an MSRP of $39,525 or $40,285 with DPH.

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Facelifted 2012 Toyota Prius Quietly Makes World Premiere in Frankfurt

We're wrapping up the first press day of the 64th International Auto Show in Frankfurt, but not before we bring you one final unveiling that flew under the radar for most of the event.

We're talking about the 2012 Toyota Prius facelift that made its world premiere in Germany today. The changes on Toyota's updated hybrid include minor tweaks to its exterior and interior design, and the introduction of a fresh assortment of multimedia systems.

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Toyota Focuses Recovery Efforts on Prius Hybrid Family

The March 11 earthquake that shook Japan to its core had many collateral damages, one of which was vehicle manufacturing. For example, more than 650 of Toyota’s suppliers suffered great damages and halted production, forcing the Japanese automaker to reconsider its strategy.

Two weeks later, its management had reached the conclusion that it should focus its worldwide resources mainly on one model line. “We were rapidly burning through cash, so in order to survive this we prioritized the cars our customers wanted most” explained head of production Atsushi Niimi.

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Britons Vote Ford Mustang as the World’s Manliest Car

Bluebeards Revenge is a UK brand of shaving cream and post-shave balm scientifically proven by Science™ [sic…] to reduce beard growth- or so it says on their webpage. The brand recently conducted an email poll of 1,835 Britons, asking them to rate the world’s “manliest” and “least manly” cars.

The results are in, and –drumbeat please- the winner is the Ford Mustang that was found to be the “manliest car on the planet” with a net total of 21% of the vote.

Runners up were the Aston Martin DB7 (15%), Range Rover (13%), Dodge Viper (11%) and Hummer H1 (10%). On the opposite end of the spectrum – the world’s “least manly” cars – were the Volkswagen Beetle (31%), Mazda Miata / MX-5 (20%), Ford Ka (11%), Toyota Prius (9%) and Nissan Cube (8%).

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Toyota to Debut 2012 Prius Plug-in Hybrid with up to 107MPG at the Frankfurt Motor Show

The final production version of Toyota's long anticipated Prius Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle –or PHEV for short- will make its first public appearance at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show on the 15th of September.

The Japanese automaker has been field-testing the Prius PHEV for quite some time now, but starting from next Spring, it will go on sale in Europe as well as other markets including select dealerships in the U.S. with a nationwide launch to follow in 2013.

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Google Says Self-Driving Prius Crash was Caused by a Human and that it Wasn't the First [with New Video]

Last week, one of Google's Toyota Prius models equipped with the internet search giant's self-driving technology made headlines after it was involved in an accident near the company's Mountain View, California, Headquarters.

While we did report Google's side of the story that said a human was behind the steering wheel at the time of the crash, like many other sites, we also stated that it was the first recorded accident involving a self-driving Google car.

Turns out we were wrong about the crash being the first of its kind as Google spokesperson Jay Narrow contacted Carscoop and told us that last year, one of the firm's cars "was once rear-ended while stopped at a traffic light".

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[Updated] Google's Self-Driving Car Involved in California Accident

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated in the title that this was the first accident involving a Google self-driving car. The corrected version reflects a change only in the title of this article. We also posted an updated story on the incident that includes a new video and an official statement from a Google spokesperson. You can check it out by clicking this link.

Many companies are developing self-driving cars. The latest example is VW’s TAP (Temporary Auto Pilot) that was recently demonstrated on video.

Another earlier model is Google’s automated/driverless fleet of Toyota Prius hybrids developed with the help of the military’s DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) 2007 Urban Challenge winner, Chris Urmson and Anthony Levandowski, the maker of the world’s first autonomous motorcycle (again, for DARPA) – oh, and an self-driving pizza-delivery vehicle.

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Evatran Presents Wireless Charging Station for Electric Vehicles

Plug-in hybrids seem to be all the rage these days, from Chevrolet’s Volt to Nissan’s Leaf and the soon to be launched in the U.S. market, Toyota Prius Plug-In. And there are many more vehicles capable of running on electric power to follow.

However, their owners must not forget to charge them, usually overnight, or they’ll wake up next morning and discover they’ve run out of electric juice. In addition, they need to know their way around with the charging cords –not an easy task as any computer geek knows very well.

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Ad Watch: Not All Toyota Prius Drivers Are Goody Two Shoes, So Sayeth Steve Nash

NBA basketball player and point guard for the Phoenix Suns Steve Nash doesn’t take himself very seriously. He has starred in a handful of TV ads - including a few for Vitamin Water - where he generally takes the piss out of himself and the typical over-the-top sporting personalities we see so very often.

Now he’s staring in a couple of TV commercials for the third generation Toyota Prius where he proves that you don’t have to be a planet-conscious all-around-good-guy to drive the Japanese brand’s popular hybrid hatch.

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Toyota to Use Prius Hybrids to Supply Household Appliances with Electricity!

As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. In Japan’s case, the devastating earthquake in March and the subsequent damages to the country’s infrastructure put the spotlight on Toyota’s Estima Hybrid minivan that features a system allowing the supply of auxiliary electricity to power household appliances.

The minivan’s owners were extremely satisfied with the system, which effectively turns the hybrid system into an electric generator that runs on gasoline, claiming that it was invaluable during the extended blackouts in Japan.

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Union of Concerned Scientists Releases 2011 Hybrid Scorecard: Prius = Good, Touareg Hybrid = Bad

The Union of Concerned Scientist, a non-profit science advocacy group in the U.S., has released its second annual Hybrid Scorecard. The organisation criticised hybrid car manufacturers for not delivering on the technology’s promise, for placing performance above fuel efficiency and environmental benefit and burdening hybrids with features that put them out of the price range of average Americans.

A total of 34 hybrid vehicles from the 2011 to 2012 model year were tested for their fuel efficiency, environmental impact, value-for-money and their so-called “forced-feature premium”. The latter is features that don’t improve fuel efficiency but probably make the cars more appealing to money-conscious consumers.

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