from web site
The computer system managed charging and releasing of the battery enhances its cycle life, calendar life, and thermal control performance. Passive battery cooling and heating is accomplished through the metal case of the battery assembly pack, while a forced air cooling system with a blower motor and ducting system allows active cooling of the HV battery.
Amongst the Prius's alternatives are Toyota's implementation of a Smart Key System (the feature can be user-deactivated), DVD navigation on the multi-function display screen, Car Stability Control and Bluetooth for hands-free calling. Probeer dit was readily available in Japan and Europe given that its launch. From 2005 to 2009, the second generation Prius had been constructed by FAW-Toyota in the city of Changchun for the Chinese market.
The relatively low sales was blamed on high rate, about US$ 15,000 greater than the equivalent in Japan or the U.S., caused by high duties on imported parts. In early March 2008, Toyota cut the cost of Prius by approximately eight percent or US$ 3,000 to CN259,800 (US$ 36,500). It was believed that the sales dropped as an outcome of both an absence of approval and increased competitors.
Toyota's style and development efforts paid off throughout the 2005 European Vehicle of the Year competition where the Prius won ahead of the Citron C4 and the Ford Focus. The Prius and the Nissan Leaf are the only cars utilizing drivewheel electrical motors to have actually won this competitors, where the usual winners are traditional hatchbacks and sedans/saloons from major European producers.
In July 2007, Toyota got both Japanese and American governmental approval to start evaluating plug-in hybrid designs utilizing a customized Ni, MH battery on public roads. The first plug-in Prius in America went to South Carolina. Scientists at the Advanced Power and Energy Program at the University of California, Irvine, and the Institute of Transportation Researches at the University of California, Berkeley, began checking two specifically made Priuses and analyzing motorist habits, study air quality and energy usage.