Toyota Prius

Toyota Prius is the first production car provided with a gasoline-electric engine that assures low fuel consumption over long distances and truly insignificant environment pollution.

This technology may remind of a gas-electric Honda Smile recorded into the "Guinness Book of Records" as the most economical car in the world. It was actually ordered by Green Peace.

However Prius designers say that their automobile cannot be compared with a two-seat coupe Honda Smile and that it has much more advantages to boast of such as standard characteristics of a standard four-seat sedan provided with a trunk and what not.

Prius has a very comfortable interior. The only thing that may seem unusual is the absence of an instrumentation panel: there is a user-friendly display on the cantilever instead replacing it.

The most curious things are placed under this car's hood: 70-horsepower 4-cylinder 1.5-liter gasoline-electric engine that boasts of incredibly low consumption (the car wasn't refueled during a week and the kilometrage done was 480 km).

Operation principle is rather simple: high temperatures are generated while braking and they are transformed into energy thanks to an electric motor, which is at the same time a generator. This energy feeds the electric batteries.

The body also contributes to low consumption as it is made of lightweight metals and this results in decreased engine load and naturally, reduced fuel consumption.

Toyota Prius is not the first automobile that features gasoline-electric engine. There were other models produced before this model was put in production but unfortunately they didn't meet the customers' demands. That was the Toyota Prius that became the first serial hybrid, the hybrid that customers can find comfortable and customary.