I think 70-90 mpg will be easily acheiveable with 3.5 times the storable KW in Lithium ion vs metal hydride batteries. This should also mean the batteries can propel the car alone above 42 mph more often and longer, even with the ICE rotating but not firing. I suspect they will have similar recharge rates when compared to metal hydride as well. Some of you engineers can set me straight on these if I am missing something. So my own unverifiable estimate is 80 mpg city, 60 mpg highway, and 69 mpg combined (45% Cty/55% Hwy split). Pump the tires up to max sidewall, use P&G, accelerate/decellerate slowly, and easily get over 70 mpg combined.

Alden Bowles
2005 Toyota Prius II HSD

I agree the second photos seem more likely although they do look an awful lot like a Photoshop job of a Yaris and a Prius... . But there's more than one view of the car (although there are 2 cars both looking Yaris in front but differing in back...).

In any case I like either of the new looks if they're real. 75mpg was Toyota's claim in a presentation earlier so 94mpg may be when the car has been plugged in.

Prius 2006, bought September 14:

You bring up a good point. There are more mileage testing methods than just the USA EPA model. IMHO, it makes sense to someday research each of the different test methodologies and do a compare and contrast of what the various standards report. Could you outline the "10-15 mode Japanese test method?"

As for the new EPA test and the rest of the world, it must look like the USA is once again "dumbing down the test."

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

Speaking about EPA and other tests .. I have not seen such sharp accelerations at any other place as I have seen in the US.

In some countries, there is so much traffic, that it makes it impossible for the vehicles to gas it down. But the same logic does not hold true for the US. A decade or two ago, when the roads were relatively much less crowded, the accelerations levels of the Americans was in general lower than it is now ... may be, the less crowd on the roads had a calming effect on the drivers, so they did not push the accelerator that hard.

But nowadays, I see an insane quest for "power" in automobile industry (300+ HP ????!!!) and the people's instinct to just push it down even if they see a red light a few hundred feet in front of them!

I watched 45 minutes of this on my 15 mile commute in to work today.

Alden Bowles
2005 Toyota Prius II HSD

It's because of our dying automobile industry. US autos fell farther and farther behind Japanese and other foreign cars, so the one place they could make headway was in selling trucks and other high-horsepower vehicles that sold well at the environment's expense. The American consumer got a little patriotic buying their vehicles to the exclusion of foreign products for a while, and the US government has bought into it big time, by setting separate standards for excessively heavy vehicles, with absurd tax breaks included.

Don't get me wrong, the idiots that buy on horsepower and think their car or "race truck" or whatever needs to be first off the line would still be around if not for all that, there'd just be a lot less of them.

Prius 2006, bought September 14:

Hello from Fuji in Japan

The Japanese 10-15 mode test is composed of two sections, the first section was the original 10 mode test( 10 steps) which is similar to city test, stop/start the top speed is 40km/h (25mph) which is repeated 3times. The 15 mode part (15 steps) was added later and is meant to simulate highway mileage but top speed is 70km/h (about 45mph). The test time is 660s(I am not sure how many times or if it is repeated ), no A/C on a roller ie wind effect. I am not sure how many times or if it is repeated.

The following link in Japanese, shows speed and time in seconds so you can probably figure acceleration. The highest acceleration appears to be 0-50km/hr (0-35mph) in 18s.
The test as you can see is pretty mild.

www.eccj.or.jp/databook/1998/p96.html

I hope this is helpful, Good Luck.

Andrew

Andrew

Would like to add some...

The Japanese 10-15 test is done just after engine warm-up and the US EPA city test is done after cooled down over night.

Ken@Japan

Ah interesting, so the Japanese test gets to skip the Prius' worst mileage stage while the US one's gonna crash right into it. The thermos probably helps that, but my warmup times on my 2006 Prius don't seem to be any better if I drove it 8hrs ago or 24hrs ago - overnight is probably too long for the thermos to have an impact.

Prius 2006, bought September 14:

The main purpose of the thermos is reducing emission when engine is cold, not for warmup times.
It was said good for three days.

Ken@Japan