January 13, 2009

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Toyota unveils next-generation Prius

By Hank Green

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

2010 Prius to Get 50 MPG, Solar Roof

Toyota just unveiled the third-generation Toyota Prius, a car that has absolutely revolutionized the industry and what it means to be environmentally conscious in a car-centric world.

It's easy to say that this third-generation car isn't as big of an advancement as the last two were. But I'm actually going to say that I'm pretty dang impressed.

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The car is bigger, more spacious, has better acceleration and actually improves mileage number significantly. This new Prius is the most efficient production car in America OF ANY SIZE. If Honda was still making the original Insight, yes, that would beat it, but the 2010 Prius truly will be the most advanced and most efficient car on the road.

New to the car, aside from all of the various innovations that made it's tremendous mileage numbers possible, is a solar sun roof, which will keep the vehicle cool on hot days, eliminating the need for huge bursts of AC, and thus strain on the battery.

The car will also have three selectable driving modes. EV, which will keep the car running on pure electricity (of course, only to low speeds,) ECON which will make sure that the Prius saves the maximum amount of energy while driving normally and POWER which will turn your Prius into a 1969 muscle car! OK...well, not exactly. It'll just keep the car as responsive as possible without much of an eye toward efficiency.

I'll have more pictures and a video of the launch up shortly. But for now, bask in the glow of the culmination of the hybrid electric vehicle. This is the pinnacle, now all that's left is moving closer to pure electric cars. 

2010 Prius Unveil Video

This blog first appeared at EcoGeek.

Hank Green is a science communicator and author who has produced and hosted thousands of videos and podcasts since he started this work in 2007. His science-fiction novels An Absolutely Remarkable Thing and A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor were both New York Times best sellers. He co-founded Complexly, which produces the educational YouTube channels SciShow and Crash Course and more than a dozen others.

More by Hank Green

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