Prius Power in the Disco Hour
Here are a couple of disheartening tidbits about the car I can't stop salivating over--the Toyota Prius. Seems that our gas prices aren't high enough here in the US (compared to Japan and Europe) to create an economic incentive to buy a hybrid, and that Toyota execs see it more as a political statement; via the Financial Times:

The low price of petrol means there is no financial justification for buying fuel-efficient hybrid petrol-electric cars in the US, according to Toyota, maker of the hybrid market leader, the Prius. Kazuo Okamoto, who takes over as head of research and development at Toyota next month, said the extra costs of hybrid cars more than wiped out any financial gains of lower fuel consumption. Buyers in the US would have to want to help the environment, not just save money. In Japan and Europe, the extra costs were approximately balanced by fuel savings. Toyota had set a target of reducing the extra cost of the hybrid to a level where it could compete on value with ordinary cars by 2010 at the current US petrol price of just over Dollars 2 a gallon, he said. "The major barrier to wider acceptance is cost," he said during a visit to Europe. "When you just use the argument of fuel efficiency, the purchase of a hybrid car is not justified. But this car has other interests, for instance environmental protection." Another Toyota executive was more blunt in his analysis: "Buying a hybrid is about political correctness, it is not about the money," he said. The comments are likely to prove an embarrassment to Toyota in the US, where the Prius is well ahead of planned sales of 100,000 this year, and the hybrid version of the luxury Lexus RX off-roader has just been launched. But the cost-saving target also shows how aggressively the Japanese company is pursuing hybrids, where it has a lead of several years in the technology. Honda, which launched the first commercially available hybrid, has been slower to expand its range because the vehicles are less profitable than ordinary petrol cars.

And then there's this bit of technical news:

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a preliminary evaluation this week of 2004 and 2005 model year Prius cars -- roughly 75,000 vehicles -- after receiving 33 complaints about engine problems, some of which occurred at highway speeds. "All of the complaints reported that the (combustion) engine shut down suddenly without warning," according to a summary of complaints prepared by highway safety investigators. All but five involved 2004 model year vehicles. Regulators said that in more than 85 percent of the complaints it was said the Prius stalled between 35 and 65 mph. Some drivers were able to operate the vehicle in electric mode for a time. About half said the car would not restart and had to be towed. No accidents were reported.

But the good news is the overall popularity of the Prius and hybrids in general. Nissan is even getting into the hybrid game, with manufacturing taking place here in the US; via the LATimes:

Nissan Motor Co. said Friday that it would build its first gas-electric hybrid passenger vehicle, an Altima sedan, at its Smyrna, Tenn., manufacturing plant next year. The hybrid Altima will use technology developed by Toyota Motor Co. to mate an electric drive system to a four-cylinder, Nissan-built gasoline engine. The hybrid's electric system is expected to give the car better fuel economy than a conventional four-cylinder Altima but with the performance of a six-cylinder gas-powered model. Nissan's contract with Toyota for hybrid components limits it to a maximum of 50,000 units a year. Nissan isn't expected to dramatically restyle the hybrid version of the Altima, and that could affect sales. Hybrids have caught on in the last year as gasoline prices have climbed: U.S. drivers purchased 73,335 hybrid cars and SUVs though May, compared with 30,194 for the first five months of 2004. Toyota's Prius is the most popular model, accounting for 59% of this year's hybrid sales.