Every automaker suffers obstacles in their ambitions to bring something revolutionary to our market. Toyota seems to have suffered that with their development of the next-generation Prius. The new Prius will be equipped with lithium-ion battery technology, which replaces the previous nickel-metal hydride battery. The lithium-ion battery would cost less and save a lot of weight, in which will improve the performance of the car and reduce the price.We speculated that the next Prius would be out by late next year, but sources say that could be pushed further to 2009. Apparently, the company developing the new battery, Matsushita Industrial, needs to tweak the battery a bit for safety concerns as well as how it will react during an accident or a fire.
[Source: Motor Authority]
