Toyota’s new Prius Plug-In Hybrid: official CO2 emissions released | New Release - Car News Feb 2012

10:54 Wednesday 29 Feb 2012

Toyota has published official EU emissions and economy figures regarding the Prius Plug-In Hybrid.

As announced by the car maker recently, the new Prius Plug-In Hybrid is the most efficient Toyota ever on British roads, emitting only 49g/km of CO2 on the combined cycle.

The Hybrid only mode (HV) figures have improved upon the current standard Prius, with CO2 emissions of 85g/km and 76.4 miles on one gallon of petrol. In addition, Toyota claim that, at only 90 minutes to charge using a conventional plug, recharging is quicker than any other electric vehicle on the market today.

Further characteristics announced by the car manufacturer include the standard Prius interior - which includes seating for five and 443 litres of boot space. The latest addition to Toyota's Prius family will have a starting price below £30,000 and it will be included in the UK government's Plug-in Car Grant scheme. Toyota plans to launch the car this summer.

The UK's most affordable hybrid

Toyota is becoming increasingly well-known for building environmentally-friendly vehicles.

On top of the Prius Plug-In Hybrid, the car maker recently announced that the new Toyota Yaris Hybrid not only records CO2 emissions of 79g/km and fuel economy of 80.7mpg and 99bhp, but at the accessible price of below £15,000.

As Toyota claimed, this makes of the Yaris Hybrid 'the most CO2 efficient combustion engine vehicle available on the current market.'

Aside from featuring economy and power efficiency, it also provides drivers with other comforts specified as standard - such as air-conditioning and automatic transmission.

Japanese rival to Toyota, Honda is also becoming increasingly associated with hybrid and eco-car varieties. In 1999, the Honda Insight was the first hybrid car model to be launched and the car maker now sells hybrid models in more than 50 countries worldwide. Interestingly in Japan more than 45 per cent of all new Honda vehicle registrations for the month of December 2011 were for hybrids.