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"The Toyota Prius hybrid looks ready to start a family. Judging from these spy images, the much-anticipated compact Prius minivan appears nearly ready for production. Take away the light camouflage on this prototype and you&amp;#039;re looking at the second installment in the Prius story, one that began more than a decade ago and has defined the hybrid market.   Don&amp;#039;t worry if you don&amp;#039;t need the extra space and seating, the standard Prius isn&amp;#039;t going anywhere. Significantly revamped for 2010, the current Prius sedan is already bigger and more powerful than before. It&amp;#039;s also more economical, thanks to aerodynamic improvements and a dash-mounted control allowing the driver to choose among three driving modes: EV (Electric), ECO (Economy), and PWR (Power).   Powered by a 1.8-liter 4-cylinder gasoline engine and an electric motor, the current Prius offers a total of 134 hp and EPA fuel mileage of 51 mpg city/48 highway. This larger Prius\u2014which was spotted during road tests in the U.S.\u2014simply adds another prong to Toyota&amp;#039;s hybrid lineup. It certainly fuels speculation that Prius will become its own brand within Toyota.   From these spy images, this larger Prius looks roughly the same size as the Mazda5 or a Mitsubishi Outlander. What remains to be seen is whether the Prius will offer seating for 5 or 7. If it&amp;#039;s the latter, the extra two seats would likely be suitable only for children. Toyota also may decide to fit this new Prius with pair of minivan-like sliding rear doors, although it appears that this prototype has conventional rear doors.   A new 2.5-liter 4-cylinder ZR-series engine will be mated to the next generation of Toyota&amp;#039;s Hybrid Synergy Drive system, but with a more advanced lithium-ion battery pack. EPA fuel economy is not known, but we do know that this new Prius will be shown at an auto show very soon.   The current Prius is priced between $22,000 and $28,000, so we&amp;#039;d expect this larger version to start somewhere around the higher end of this spectrum. Let&amp;#039;s say $26,000 as a base price. While this compact Prius minivan (a vehicle called an MPV by Europeans) will be bigger (and undoubtedly heavier) than the standard Prius, Toyota is likely to pull out every engineering trick to make certain fuel economy does not fall much below the current model&amp;#039;s 50-mpg average. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/videos/a16632/spied-toyota-prius-minivan/>