Toyota plans to increase its presence aggressively in the plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) segment when it launches the remodeled Prius PHV in Japan later this year.
The model will be called Prius Prime in the US.
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Local reports in Japan, citing company insiders, claim the new model offers a fuel consumption of 120 miles per gallon. The car will be similar in shape and size to the recently redesigned standard hybrid model.
Toyota is looking to sell high volumes of the car but concedes that one of the main costs is its expensive battery pack. As with some predecessor Prius versions, it also uses solar panels as an additional power source.
It has an electric cruise range of 22 miles (at least double its predecessor) which can increase by 80% if commuters can recharge at work. It only switches to petrol drive when battery power runs low.
Toyota has sold 9m hybrid vehicles worldwide since the first model went on sale in 1997. Of these, only 75,000 are PHEVs which went on sale in 2012.
