Plug-in hybrids are the next wave of hybrid wunderkinds and are poised to greatly change the way we think about fuel economy. The prospect of never using fuel in around-town trips has a great deal of appeal. However, there's been some vocal concern the US power grid is in no state to support the added load these cars will present. With the specter of the "rolling brown-outs" in California and the massive grid failure across the north east in 2004, there's some validity to the concern.

However, a study from the Electric Power Research Institute and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) titled "Environmental Assessment of Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles" says there's really no need for concern because the volume is far too low. On top of that, power company officials from Detroit-area power supplier Detroit Edision as well as LA's Southern California Edison say the grid can easily handle the additional load. In LA's situation there might be some adjustments made where there will be enclaves of hippies hybrid drivers. Overall, a plug-in hybrid doesn't look much different to the grid than four or five flat screen TV's running at the same time. [Green Car Reports]

[via CreativityOnline]

Results from the study show hybrid vehicles had a crash rate of 0.9% compared to just 0.6% for regular ICE vehicles. Because hybrids tend to use all-electric mode at lower speeds, the number of pedestrian/bike accidents are higher at under 35 MPH. The report itself uses limited data from only 12 states and doesn't draw direct conclusions as to why — though it's obvious — so this is being used to instruct local governments on how to deal with hybrids and non-car commuters.

[NHTSA (PDF) via Green Car Reports, Pure Green Cars]

Because if there's one thing we know, this always ends well. And y'all better hurry — we think you only have until the end of today to do it.

Oh, and the prize? It remains to be seen. But the more spectacular the stunt, the better.

Photo Credit: John Nuttal

There were a few years around the turn of the millennium when a wild spectrum of appliance manufacturers were inspired by the translucent, colored plastics used by Apple lead designer Jonathan Ive for the original iMac. The future, as evidenced by a casual glimpse at household appliances, was about to turn bondi blue.

This did not happen, of course, mainly because Ive has since abandoned color and began to lead his team to create monochrome computers, like the latest iteration of his iMac, announced yesterday.

But Apple’s aesthetics creep through and define modern industrial design. Observe this info-display made by Toyota for last month’s Frankfurt Motor Show to advertise their new Prius: it is as close to an iPhone as you can get without actually manufacturing a handheld computing device with a multitouch screen.

I wouldn’t be surprised if our Ray Wert, currently prowling the Tokyo Motor Show, came across something very similar. Or perhaps a rapid-prototyped press freebie aping Apple’s new mouse. (Nope! Bupkiss. —Ed.)

Human beings aren't strictly rational animals. Car enthusiasts, for all their emphasis on numbers and measurements, are roughly equal parts rational and rationalizing, and there's no end to the myths that have grown around car culture. We believe that many of those myths, while perhaps not strictly true, are beneficial and help make car culture a fun place to be. We therefore choose to live as if these myths are pure truth, and we fully support all those who do. Click Next to see some of our most cherished.

MYTH: Cars were just plain better in the old days.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH IT: Cars are safer, more reliable, more efficient, and perform better today than they were in any version of "the old days."

WHY WE BELIEVE IT ANYWAY: Because there are different versions of "better," and one definition has to include some sort of subjective measure of soul. As many have said, the rear end on that '59 Bel Air has enough soul for a Motown collection. And we believe that almost any older car, from AMCs to old Volvos, can have more soul, charisma, personality, or what have you have you than something modern designed to do nothing more than hold four sets of golf clubs and then crash. Plus, owning an older car almost invariably means you're working on it, and working on your own car makes your car more yours as well as making you a smarter and more capable person.

MYTH: Ferraris are the ultimate automobiles.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH IT: The overwhelming Ferrari mystique obscures the fact that these things are overpriced, overstyled, breakdown-prone pose-mobiles.

WHY WE BELIEVE IT ANYWAY: So who gives a damn? Frankly, the question of Ferrari ownership is probably never going to be one of our problems, and it's good to have someone at the epicenter of automotive lust. Even if you're not a Ferrari person, you probably have some equivalent ultra-car marque as the angel on top of your imaginary lottery-winning Christmas tree, and the same logic applies-someone has to be the ultimate, and the ideal of the ultimate will always be more important than the reality. At least this ideal comes with its own F1 team.

MYTH: The Indy 500 is one of the greatest races in the world.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH IT: It's been trading on its storied history as it slowly becomes a boring and expensive spec race.

WHY WE BELIEVE IT ANYWAY: Because we believe there's still a chance that it could return to its innovative, anything-goes, world's-best-drivers glory days. Exactly how this may happen is unclear to us, and it won't happen by next year if ever, but we hold out hope. And it's still much more fun and interesting to watch than the other Greatest Race traditionally held on the same day, the glitzier but far more past-its-prime Grand Prix of Monaco.

MYTH: Car dealers can't be trusted.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH IT: With contemporary consumer protection and access to information, you can probably trust them now more than ever before.

WHY WE BELIEVE IT ANYWAY: Because consumer skepticism, at least educated consumer skepticism, is a good thing, especially on major purchases. Trust must be earned, right? Now, this doesn't mean prospective car buyers should walk into dealerships and say "Prove to me you're not a crook!" because for one thing, you can't prove a negative. What it means is to do your research, don't let car lust carry you away, and always, always, always take a Jalopnik reader with you when buying a car.

MYTH: The Prius sucks.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH IT: The Prius is a perfectly competent automobile that delivers very good fuel economy and has thousands of satisfied owners.

WHY WE BELIEVE IT ANYWAY: In its quest to save precious energy resources it's created a shortage of material resources. It's hideous. For the first successful hybrid, it's remarkably uninteresting from a tech point of view-when our sister site Gizmodo featured one at their gallery and ran its 12-volt battery down showing off its flashy dashboard, we were a bit miffed to find that it couldn't jump-start itself. And seriously, we'd rather be taken out and shot out behind the storage shed than spend $28,000 on a perfectly competent automobile that delivers very good fuel economy.

MYTH: LeMans is a great movie.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH IT: LeMans is a collection of racing footage inside of a really terrible movie.

WHY WE BELIEVE IT ANYWAY: Because that's a really, really stupendous collection of racing footage in that terrible movie. Also, the terrible movie includes Steve McQueen, which softens the blow somewhat. It really seems like making LeMans was an excuse for the director, cast, and crew to hang around the Circuit De La Sarthe with race cars for a few days, and that's something we can all understand.

MYTH: Manual transmissions are better than automatic transmissions.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH IT: Automatics are catching up; the dual-clutch units can outperform manual boxes in many cases, and even their fuel-economy advantage may be disappearing.

WHY WE BELIEVE IT ANYWAY: Again, there's better and there's better. In this case, being in total control of your car is fun and interesting, and more fun and interest are better. To many, learning stick is still an achievement-although maybe it shouldn't be, heck, it isn't all THAT hard, but no matter-and being more capable is better than having everything done for you. We could really give a damn if the Porsche PDK systems are a tenth faster to sixty or whatever the numbers are; we didn't bother to look them up because we don't care. We would rather drive to
sixty a bit slower than ride there.

MYTH: Gaze upon my works, ye not worthy, and despair; for I am Bob motherfucking Lutz.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH IT: What, Bob Lutz? So-called Father of the Viper? He's just a marketing guy.

WHY WE BELIEVE IT ANYWAY: Listen, we need colorful figures in this world, and Bob Lutz is the most colorful person we have in the American car business. Perhaps in any business. His is a tradition going back as far as Barnum, or at least Don King. Are auto writers worried that Fritz Henderson will land a helicopter in their backyard, walk into their house, and yell at them? Is Alan Mulally or Scott Monty going to challenge us to a duel anytime soon? Nope. And seriously, without Lutz, we wouldn't have so much of modern car culture, from the phrase "The Ultimate Driving Machine" to the aforementioned Viper. Yes, there's way too much marketing in the world today, but that's not the problem. The problem is that Lutz isn't doing all of it.

Automotive News reported late yesterday that, at a dealer meeting in Las Vegas on Tuesday and Wednesday, Toyota executives said the name Prius would be attached to "a family of models" using similar hybrid powertrains, says veteran Toyota dealer Earl Stewart.

Toyota will have a range of Prius hybrid models "but Prius won't be a separate sub-brand like Scion," Stewart says.

"The Highlander hybrid and Camry hybrid do OK, but calling it ‘Synergy Drive' never resonated with consumers," Stewart says. "But they can make hay on the Prius name. It's a magic name. If somebody says ‘I drive a Prius,' everybody knows what he means."

Toyota Motor Sales COO Jim Lentz has been pushing for a multi-platform Prius lineup for a year. But this was the first time it has been openly discussed in front of TMS President Yoshi Inaba and Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda. [via Automotive News]

The Prius in question is a bit of a ringer to begin with, dubbed the "Algeus," it was unveiled in San Francisco and it's equipped with battery-charging solar cells on the roof, a higher capacity nickel metal hydride battery, and a plug-in system to charge everything up. With a claimed 150 MPG, they're starting off with a significant leap in fuel economy to start. But still, they're using a completely renewable, Earth-safe alternative to petroleum-based fuel, right? Sort of. That 25 gallons of fuel they expect to run through the unmodified engine on their (slow) ten day coast to coast trip is but a mere 5% actual Algae biofuel, mixed with, you guessed it, good old gasoline.

We could be super cynical about this, but if we put things in context, the same change introduced to the US fuel supply would reduce consumption by 164,049,250 gallons of gasoline a year, about an 18 day supply. So, yes, this is blatant headline grabbing by Sapphire Energy, but it's also an indication of the potential for little steps to add up. [Inhabitat]

Click next to see in full detail the process of creating your very own NES-worth flames, as demonstrated by Flickr user Saeru.

This was all done with colored strips of magnets cut into approximately one-inch squares using some scissors and a paper cutter.

You have to chose the right car and, in our view, the Toyota Prius isn't a bad choice given its hybrid drivetrain. This could also work wonders on a Tesla.

Attention to detail is important, it's probably best to have a drawing of flames to start with.

It's all in the details, and little bits of blue make the fire pop!

If you have some leftover you can also ornament the rest of the car.

And voila, you're done!

Photo credit: Saeru

These fears of shortage have been aired in the past, but towards key battery elements lithium and nickel. However, now, with Toyota projecting sales of 100,000 units of its mild child this year, it's becoming increasingly important to look at the more unusual mined elements in a hybrid, where they're used, and how much of it it takes to make just a single Prius.

Rare Earth Element: Neodymium
Amount per Prius: 1 kilogram (2.2 lb)
Use: Powerful magnetic element used in compact electric motors. The shiny button magnets that keep little motors going an clasp clever covers. In large enough quantities, as in one kilo of magnet, there's plenty of force to crush your little piggies with great vengeance.
Trouble: Neodymium is a magnificent material with a high magnetism to volume rating. So for every cubic something of neodymium, you get a great bang for the buck in magnetism compared to traditional magnets. It also means there's a lot of competition with the consumer electronics biz, which is in a brutal competition to modernize and micro-size any and all components, including magnet-based speakers, as a start. Add to that the recent surge in interest over wind power from turbines, which also use neodymium magnets, and you've got the makings of market trouble.

Rare Earth Element: Lanthanum.
Amount per Prius: 10 to 15 kg (22-33 lb)
Use: The intermetallic element in nickel-metal hydride batteries, the amount of lanthanum is proportional to the number of cells per battery. Also alloyed with neodymium to stabilize the high magnetic field.
Trouble: The volume of material used in the Prius battery is only an estimate, but it puts into stark contrast the production capability of current suppliers. It's been estimated there's a total of 40,000 kg mined per year

The current mining giant is China as this graph representing rare earth element mining shows, however, it's difficult to say exactly how much material is being mined at any given time as there's no formal trading market. With the previous juggernaut of Mountain Pass planned to be reopened in some capacity in California in 2012, along with Avalon mines in Canada's Northwest Territories there will be additional supplies opening up, but only to the tune of about a 2-5% increase.

Not all of the 15 rare earth elements are appropriate for automotive use, only the two we've mentioned are used in any quantity along with terbium and dysprosium used in trace amount for alloying. Like other cars, the Prius grabs its fair share of precious metals like platinum, gold, silver, palladium as well as the common elements and refined petroleum products like plastics. When taken in context, a years worth of material to supply production for any mass market automobile takes on staggering proportions. Calling any car "green" over any other is an exercise in self-delusion, it's just that ironically, the "greenest" of publicly perceived cars is one that may drive some commodities markets to the brink.

(Thanks to Jack Lifton, independent commodities consultant and strategic metals expert, for assisting with this article)

Although we've seen a shot of the Prius limo before, we've never seen it in so much detail. These shots come to us from the fancy Jalopnik Facebook page (which is like the wild west of commenting. Have fun with it kiddies!) With six fully functioning doors, it was apparently created to tote around a whole herd of kids and their junk. It's got and somehow manages to return similar fuel economy as the regular Prius. It's center section might be a little bumpier, but you can't argue with the sleek limo proportions. Somehow this car is way, way cooler than a normal Prius, but we have no idea why. (Hat tip toGabe!)

My first ride in a hybrid vehicle was on a cold and damp winter afternoon four years ago in Budapest traffic, returning from a photoshoot for my then-employer’s Christmas card, which depicted a twisted nativity scene (if you must, you can see yours truly in a skimpy lamb suit at this hyperlink). The then-new Lexus RX400h was the perfect vehicle for crawling along at 5 MPH: eerily silent, very comfortable and with the added touch of environmental relief. Nino Karotta and I watched in awe the cute tree icons we received from the car after every 50 kW or so produced, as if they were bonuses in a videogame.

It was not hard to imagine roaming the countryside in a Toyota hybrid and have trees sprouting in our wake, substituting biomass for a hybrid car’s actual emissions, which are made not of cellulose but of noxious smoke. Less smoke, but smoke nevertheless.

This was years before Toyota itself produced an advertisement for the Prius on this very theme, titled Harmony, which is by far the most hippy thing I’ve ever seen. YouTube’s robotic brain seems to agree: it’s throwing up all sorts of Woodstock footage as related video.

Toyota is now following up its ad with live flowerscapes made of 20,000 flowers each, planted by California’s freeways. I’m hoping they also plan on making a digital version of it, where a program in the Prius’s computer would light up a pixel representing a single flower after every 50 kW produced. Then, upon completion of the entire image of a thousand megawatts, you would get hit with an upgrade notice for a Lexus. You can’t re-plant the entire Amazon Basin with a single car, after all, can you?

Photo Credit: Toyota USA, Balázs Fenyő, Lexus

To earn a top safety pick a vehicle must get top ratings in front, side, and rear tests. They must also be equipped with electronic stability control. While none of these things make a car any more fun to drive, they certainly make them more comforting to crash. The Insight and Prius were sort of givens and we're not altogether surprised about the Soul as it competes with the Honda Fit and Scion XB, both of which won the award last year.

The IIHS was kind enough to include some Kia Soul and Honda Insight carnage, which you can view below.

<img src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/stills/insight_front_jalopnik.flv.jpg"

 (Thanks for the tip Doug)

[Fox61]