For the past 30 years, Japan has declared a car of the year, an award given to newly released or redesigned vehicles released from November 1st of the previous year to October 1st of the current year. More than 60 jurors composed of Japanese journalists receive an allocation of votes, and the car with the most votes comes away with the crown.
This year the Toyota Prius narrowly edged out the Honda Insight, continuing the recent trend of environmentally-friendly winners. Other notable winners included the new Volkswagen Golf, which was named the Import Car of the Year, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, which was declared to have the Most Advanced Technology. The Nissan Fairlady Z won the category of Most Fun, and finally the Subaru Legacy took top honors for Best Value.
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the award, the Tokyo Motor Show also organized a display of past winners, starting with the Mazda Familia 3-door Hatch Back in 1980-1981 and finishing with last year's winner, the Toyota IQ.
Quick – what's the most fuel efficient car currently for sale in America? Did you guess the Toyota Prius? If so, give yourself a cookie, you're right. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the 2010 version of Toyota's seminal hybrid once again scores the mileage victory with its estimated 51 mpg city and 48 highway.
Second place is grabbed by a set of newcomers to the hybrid arena for the 2010 model year: Ford's Fusion sedan and its sibling from Mercury, the Milan. The Blue Oval's hybrid duo earn EPA ratings of 41 city and 36 highway, making them the most fuel efficient midsize sedans in America.
Rounding out the top 10 vehicle platforms are the Civic Hybrid and Insight from Honda; the Lexus HS 250h; the Nissan Altima Hybrid; the Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute and Mercury Mariner hybrid 'utes; Smart's Fortwo coupe and cabriolet (the only non-hybrids in the top 10); Toyota's Camry Hybrid and finally the Lexus RX 450h.
With every new vehicle introduced by Toyota powered by the automaker's proprietary Hybrid Synergy Drive comes a matching complaint filed by Paice LLC for patent infringement. In the latest case, Paice has filed a grievance with the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington alleging that Toyota is violating a patent it holds for powertrains that feature both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor – better known as hybrids.
This isn't the first time these two companies have grappled over hybrid drivetrain patents. Back in 2005, Paice won an initial judgement against Toyota resulting in an order that the automaker to pay Paice monetary damages of $4.3 million, though the judge rejected a request to force Toyota to halt sales of hybrid vehicles in the U.S. at that time. Later, Toyota was ordered to pay royalties equal to a small percentage of every hybrid sold in the States.
This time, Paice is taking a slightly different tack, seeking to get importations of Toyota's super popular Prius hybrid (along with all the rest of the hybrids from Toyota and Lexus) stopped by U.S. Customs right at the docks. According to Bloomberg, it could take about 15 months for the ITC to investigate this case, so there doesn't seem to be any reason to rush out and storm your local Toyota or Lexus dealer for a new hybrid...
According to the ever-flowing and always active rumormill, Toyota may be working on a new low-cost hybrid to do battle with the revived Honda Insight, which is a bit smaller than its rival from Toyota and undercuts its price by a few thousand dollars (or a few million yen). Likely due in no small part to its low point of entry, Honda managed to move 18,000 Insight hybrids in Japan in its first month on sale, which is well above the automaker's early projections. The new hybrid from Toyota would use similar hybrid components as the Prius but would use a smaller engine and cost 20-30% less. Even if these rumors are true, Toyota still plans to continue selling its previous-generation Prius in Japan for at least the 2010 model year alongside the new model, which features better performance from an enlarged 1.8-liter engine while still managing to reduce fuel consumption. So far, there's no indication that Toyota will sell a lower-cost hybrid model in the U.S.
![Detroit 2009: Third-gen Prius arrives with 50 mpg combined rating [w/VIDEO]](http://www.niot.net/blog-images/01_Feb/detroit-2009-third-gen-prius-arrives-with-50-mpg-combined-ratin.jpg)
After teasing us for months with photos of switches and boot up screens, followed by a leak of the whole car, Toyota finally dropped the third generation 2010 Prius today in Detroit. We already heard many of the mechanical details over the past year or so, but today it was confirmed that the Prius will get a combined EPA rating of 50 mpg. That's 50 mpg under the new tighter EPA testing method, mind you. The engine has been up-sized to 1.8L with an output of 98 hp and the total net output of the hybrid drive system is 134 hp. The basic design is still instantly recognizable as a Prius, but the body does have a bit more character than before. Nonetheless the shape is smoother with a drag coefficient of just 0.25. The peak of the roof has now been moved back 4 inches giving the car a slightly less egg-shaped profile and increasing rear headroom. Aside from optional extras like LED headlights and lane departure prevention, the most interesting new option is the solar roof. A roof-mounted photo-voltaic panel will power the air recirculation system when the car sits in the sun, reducing the internal temps and the subsequent load on the air conditioning system. The Prius goes on sale later this spring but pricing hasn't been announced yet. Hit the jump to view video of the live press conference.
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Now it begins to make sense: The previous performance art video teasers for the 2010 Prius were made up largely of edited shots from this teaser, with the Blue Man Group restored to its place. This one doesn't make any more or less sense than the previous videos, and there isn't much more to see, but it does offer a couple of chuckles. We would love to see how far you get with that eyedropper, though. Follow the jump to check out the video and see what we mean.
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Jalopnik is reporting this morning that images published last night on the web of what appeared to be the next-generation 2010 Toyota Prius are, in fact, the real deal. Toyota PR reportedly confirmed to the website that what we're looking at is the same car that will be revealed in January at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show. We've also included some spy shots in the gallery below that would seem to corroborate this. As Damon pointed out last night, the new design is an evolution of the current model that incorporates some recent favorite styling cues of Toyota designers like the bulbous badge housing up front. The interior, however, is a marked step away from the current model's spaceship controls, and thankfully eschews that car's dash-mounted shifter for a new one properly placed on the buttressed center console. Mechanically speaking, the new Prius is expected to arrive with a more powerful gas engine, bigger electric motor and, despite continuing to use nickel-metal hydride rather than lithium-ion batteries, improved fuel efficiency. It is the Prius after all.
We're far from convinced that the image above is the 2010 Toyota Prius, but judging by the front detail pic and the interior shot, it could be the most accurate portrayal we'll see before it's unveiling in Detroit this January. The pic, published over at PriusChat by bossdowner, shows a restyled front end that takes a few cues from recent ToMoCo offerings, including the bulbous badge housing, deeper air dam and recessed fog lamps. The headlights are a nice touch, but we still haven't warmed up to the L-shaped design originally shown on the new Maxima and forthcoming 370Z. As for the interior, it's a sea of bland in a dark gray plastic that would make the Germans proud. However, we dig the raised center console with an integrated pass-through to access the 12-volt outlet.
Toyota's marketing team has released the first image of the next-gen Prius, and it's not what you think. The shot shows what appears to be the welcome screen that will appear on the car's in-dash screen upon startup, and the font looks curiously like the same one used by the new Knight Rider series on NBC. We doubt this means Prius v3.0 will have Turbo Boost built in, but it will have a larger four-cylinder gas engine and more powerful electric motor. Unfortunately, the new Prius is expected to carry over its nickel-metal hydride batteries rather than going with new lithium-ions, at least for now. The 2010 Toyota Prius will be making its first public appearance at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show in January, and we'll be there to greet the new green king in person.
New spy photos of Toyota's next-gen Prius have surfaced on the web, and for the first time we're looking at an actual prototype rather than a mere mule built out of pieces and parts from the current-gen Prius. The new spy shots reveal that the 2010 Prius will indeed retain the current five-door hatchback shape of the current model but will grown in both length and width. While NextAutos is reporting that the Prius will become more powerful with a larger engine (Car and Driver reports that a 1.6L Atkinson four-cylinder will replace the current 1.5L from the old Echo), we're hearing that it will continue to use nickel-metal hydride batteries rather than newer lithium-ion batteries. Toyota is, after all, building a whole new factory in Japan to produce more nickel-metal hydride batteries that should be operational in 2010. Even with the larger engine, the new Prius will get better gas mileage than the current model, and the Prius range is expected to grow at some point with new models like a station wagon and convertible. The next-gen Prius that will kick things off is expected to debut at this year's Detroit Auto Show in January
