Toyota working on plug-in hybrid, ethanol-powered car

Toyota has announced that they are pursuing a plug-in hybrid vehicle which would go further on a tank of gas and have less emissions than current cars. The announcement came from a speech made in Washington yesterday.

Before you get too excited, though, keep in mind that a viable plug-in vehicle that makes sense for more than the greenest of customers may be years away: the batteries needed to store enough power to make the vehicles worthwhile do not yet exist. Indeed, Toyota says that the batteries would need to have about twice the juice of those found in the current Prius.

The race is on between Toyota and GM for this segment, as the latter is very visibly working on a plug-in hybrid which they are hoping to show off as early as the Detroit Auto Show in January.

Toyota also hinted that they may soon have ethanol vehicles on the market in the near future, though fewer details have been released at this time.