Examining the leaked Prius shots

We finally know what the 2010 Prius looks like, and it comes with a few other choice bits of information. While Toyota wasn't planning to release the final design of the car until the Detroit Auto Show, the pictures leaked last week and were later confirmed to be pictures of the final design.

The car looks very much like the current Prius, just a little higher in the nose and with less slope on the hood and roof. But that isn't much of a surprise. The Prius owns the green idea in America, and Toyota has no interest in confusing that with a radical design change.

Of course, with a LOT of new green cars coming onto the road, many of them looking strikingly like the Prius, Toyota might have a bit of a battle holding onto their green mindshare.

Other news includes the possibility of a solar option for the Prius. Toyota has been considering this for ages, but I think panels have finally gotten cheap and durable enough for Toyota to be ready to pull this off. The panels would be built into the roof of the vehicle and send a constant charge into the batteries to increase mileage and charge batteries with the car was parked.

The plug-in option for the Prius looks to still be a ways off, with only 100 planned for production before 2010.

Of course, there might be a lot of secrets in store at the Detroit show -- and higher resolution shots of the car. EcoGeek will be there to hear what Toyota has to say about the future of the Prius.

Via AutoBlogGreen and Engadget