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Reuters reports, “Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday it would activate leasing 500 constituent hybrids based on the Prius archetypal globally by the end of this year.” Don’t get too aflame about accepting abaft the wheel, however. Only 150 of the cars are appointed to appear to the U.S., and all 500 will be appointed “primarily for government and accumulated use..

The baby agile will serve to analysis array technology. Edmunds Inside Line reports, “For the aboriginal time, the constituent Prius will use lithium-ion batteries that can be answerable on domiciliary accepted or from a appropriate charging station. The new 2010 Prius, which went on auction beforehand this year in Japan and the U.S., uses beneath able nickel-metal hydride batteries.”

The beginning array agency these aboriginal constituent Prius sedans will be big-ticket for Toyota to build, and it ability be absurd for the automaker to advertise them to clandestine barter at a accumulation in the abreast future.

Toyota may not accept as abundant absorption in Constituent Hybrid Electric Car (PHEV) technology as some of its rivals. PhysOrg addendum that Bill Reinert, Toyota’s U.S. administrator for avant-garde technologies, afresh told a National Academy of Sciences console that Prius sales “were about 159,000 endure year,” while “Toyota estimates sales of hybrids that can be recharged at domiciliary outlets may be 50,000 units a year at a lot of and could be as few as 3,500,.” Reinert added, “A bazaar for constituent hybrids will emerge, but their success depends on advantages over absolute hybrids.” Today, he thinks, those advantages are not bright because “There is a abundant accord of aberration on how accepted PHEVs accomplish in real-world conditions.”‘

There is some accident in that position, however. General Motors affairs to absolution its long-awaited Chevy Volt extended-range electric car in 2010. The Volt, GM claims, can allegation from a accepted bank aperture and biking 40 afar on array ability afore starting its gasoline engine. If the Volt alcove bazaar while Toyota is still experimenting with a baby agile of Prius PHEVs, Toyota could lose its acceptability for blooming car administration to GM.

If you’re in the bazaar for a new car, analysis out the U.S. News rankings of this year’s best cars as able-bodied as this month’s best car deals.