Prius Stars in Casual Mafia’s Rap Video

Not since Carrot Mob made it rain has there been such a hilariously green rap video. Casual Mafia dedicated a song to the Toyota Prius, talking about tax credits in the G’s and hugging mad trees. Check it out:

Some lyrics, via Ecorazzi:

“Cruisin’ down the street in my ‘04
Obama bumper sticker and so much more
When I lost it all in the Madoff scheme
The market sank, they repossessed by Beam
I thought ‘What can I do, have I lost my game?’
And now I’m Cru-Cru-Cruising in the carpool lane!”

I love how their little group is made up of hippies, yuppies and a dude with an iPod wearing a babydoll in a Snugli. Pure awesome.

Link [Ecorazzi]

A Peek at the 2010 Toyota Prius

There have been a lot of exciting electric & hybrid vehicles unveiled over the past couple years, but perhaps none have been as anticipated as the ‘Generation III’ 2010 Prius hybrid – simply because it’s attainable for so many people. The ‘Generation II’ model, as the 2004-2009 Prius is called, has been one of the most popular clean & green cars and the Gen III promises to improve upon its predecessor’s design.

Toyota has given us a peek at the 2010 Prius, which offers an EPA-rated combined cycle fuel economy of 50mpg. From Green Car Congress:

This is about a 10% improvement in EPA-rated combined cycle fuel economy over the older generation. Of that 10% improvement, about 6% can be attributed to the new hybrid system (including the larger combustion engine) and about 4% to efficiency improvements in other aspects of the vehicle, such as better aerodynamics, said Chief Engineer Akihiko Otsuka.

The newest version of Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive as applied in the 2010 Prius is more than 90% newly developed, and has produced more patents than previous Prius generations combined. Maximum system output, including the engine, is controlled to about 100 kW (134 hp).

Nominal pack voltage of the nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery remains at 201.6 VDC. The more compact battery pack and system main relay assembly were repositioned, resulting in increased cargo volume and cabin comfort. Cooling air velocity and volume have been increased for increased cooling efficiency, resulting in overall improved battery efficiency and fuel economy. The pack is warranted for 10 years/150,000 miles.

At end of life, every part of the battery is recycled or processed for disposal at a dedicated facility in Japan.

More details about the engine, transaxle, inverter, fuel tank, driving modes and options packages are available at Green Car Congress.

Smug levels are going to go through the roof all over the country, not just in San Francisco, when this car is released. It’ll undoubtedly outsell the Gen II model since, as Toyota’s U.S. VP Bob Carter says, current Prius owners are eager to buy additional Priuses and it’s going to appeal to a big percentage of the public as well.

Link [Green Car Congress]

Your Prius Can Act as an Emergency Generator

Owning a Prius has more benefits than simply saving money on gas and lowering your carbon footprint – it can also get your family through a snowstorm by providing power. And while, technically, any car battery hooked up to an inverter can do the same thing, the Prius uses far less gas while doing so, meaning you can drive away when the storm is over.

The Harvard Press in Massachusetts reported that during a recent ice storm, resident John Sweeney ran his refrigerator, freezer, TV, woodstove fan and several lights through his Prius for three days on roughly five gallons of gas.

“When it looked like we were going to be without power for awhile, I dug out an inverter (which takes 12v DC and creates 120v AC from it) and wired it into our Prius…These inverters are available for about $100 many places online,” he wrote.

The device allowed the engine to run every half hour, automatically charging the car battery and indirectly supplying the required power.

The New York Times points out that what Sweeney did is essentially along the lines of “smart grid” technology.

The idea is that the battery of an electric car — a plug-in, in most smart-grid scenarios — can feed power to the electricity grid when the grid needs it.

Even President-elect Barack Obama has endorsed this idea, as seen toward the end of this YouTube clip in which he said: “We’re going to have to have a smart grid if we want to use plug-in hybrids — then we want to be able to have ordinary consumers sell back the electricity that’s generated.”

Of course, it seems as if Mr. Sweeney could have saved a bit of energy by putting his food out in the snow and ice – instead of keeping the refrigerator and freezer running in freezing cold weather – but what he did is smart all the same. Hopefully we’ll see a lot more energy efficiency breakthroughs in the coming year as people realize that we’ve been a bit wasteful in the past.

Link [The Harvard Press] + [The New York Times]

Next Generation Toyota Prius Will Have Solar Panels

Toyota will be installing solar panels on the roof of the next generation Prius, set to begin production next year and released in 2010.  The power generated by the solar panels will be used to power the air conditioning system, which was previously putting strain on the hybrid powertrain.   The panels will only be available on high-end Prius models.

There have also been rumors that the next generation Prius will have a lithium battery and may get over 100mpg.  The body has been redesigned to be slightly larger and more aerodynamic.

I can’t wait to see how high gas prices are going to continue to spur innovation in all industries.  We should be seeing some extremely cool cars in the next few years, and the best part is they’ll be getting greener and greener!  With so many interesting new designs and concepts in the works right now, the hardest part will be choosing between them all.

Link [Reuters]
Photo credit: Popular Mechanics

Toyota Can Barely Meet Demand for Prius and Compact Cars

Hybrids are so in demand right now, automaker giant Toyota can barely keep up. In fact, they’ve had to refuse giant orders for the Prius and energy-efficient compact cars from rental car companies because they simply don’t have the capabilities to produce the vehicles as quickly as they’re needed. Had they been prepared for the surge, Toyota could be swimming in profits right now, but since they had a limited stock of small vehicles, they’re actually down by 11.5% since June.

From Reuters:

Toyota executives said a dwindling inventory of vehicles, such as the Prius, Yaris and Corolla, had forced the automaker to scramble to try to keep up with demand in June, a month when industry-wide U.S. auto sales dropped almost 9 percent.

Sales of Toyota’s Prius, the top-selling hybrid in the U.S. market, fell 26 percent as dealers ran short of inventory and customers faced a six-month waiting list. Toyota said it would only partly be able to satisfy the backlog of demand from its dedicated Prius factory in Japan this year.

Production of the Prius’s battery, in particular, is putting a stain on Toyota’s ability to meet demand. The current generation Prius uses nickel-metal hydride batteries produced by Panasonic EV. Meanwhile, Honda has made plenty of profits lately due to the availability of its line of hybrids and compact vehicles. Detroit is still ailing, since the three major automakers there – GM, Ford and Chysler – failed to anticipate the need for efficient cars.

Link [Reuters]
Photo credit: Flickr user Stephen Witherden