Toyota to sell ‘affordable’ hybrids by 2011

Published 10:41 pm Sunday, December 13, 2009

TOKYO — Toyota said today that it will start selling plug-in hybrid vehicles to consumers in 2011 at an “affordable” price.

Toyota Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada made the comments while showing the latest Prius plug-in hybrid Monday. Currently they are only available for leasing to governments and businesses, not regular consumers.

About 150 of those vehicles will be introduced in the U.S. starting this month, the company said.

The plug-in travels 14.5 miles as an electric vehicle on a single charge, and gets 35 miles per gallon.