Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

Wed 12 Dec 2002The BusinessAround the industry with Michael McAleerNEW PRIUS: A new version of the Toyota's hybrid Prius will be launched next year, according to Dave Shannon of Toyota Ireland, who said the new design will be more in keeping with the styling of the rest of the range. The Prius is Toyota's first mass production hybrid cars and about 105,000 have been sold so far. However, only 30 Prius cars a year are sold in Ireland, largely due to its high price. This is in spite of a Government tax rebate of 50 per cent of VRT. Shannon said that the difficulty is that while the cleaner technology is still something that everyone 'aspires to' they are not prepared to pay extra for.