With over a million hybrid car sales under its belt, Toyota is rightly proud of the success of the Prius. The Prius has been the first commercialized hybrid car on the market and its gaining acclaim more than ten years after its launch. Michael Moroney reports on his recent Prius run as it continues to impress.

With all the talk and writing about CO2 emissions from modern cars, it was timely to take a drive in the latest generation hybrid Toyota Prius. The car has sold over one million units since its introduction more than ten years ago. So what makes it special and is it the way to go in the future?

Toyota has lowered the price of the new Prius hybrid car by over €3,000 to €27,005 before delivery charges and this fuel efficient and low CO2 motor comes with just €100 per year road tax rate.

The concept of the hybrid car in the Toyota Prius means there is a petrol engine combined with an electric power source to give clean and fuel-efficient motoring. Toyota calls it Toyota Hybrid Synergy Drive and it provides the car with a computer control system that mixes the power sources on demand.

This means that if you want acceleration power, the power of the 1.5-litre petrol engine is combined with the power from the system's electric motors to give good pace. The electric motors are rated to give about the same power as a conventional 1.0 to 1.2-litre engine.

If you want more leisurely country driving then the petrol engine will probably function on its own. For driving in and around the town, the engine mix changes as the driving conditions change. In stop start traffic the electric power kicks in and it's quite and clean. And the car has stop start technology, meaning that if you stop the Prius in traffic then the engine stops too, saving power and emissions.

The Prius has a clear dash mounted display panel that tells you what's happening in terms of the source of the engine power. It also shows how the car is regenerating power for the large battery system, which is incorporated into the rear seat back.

Once you decelerate and/or apply the brakes, the car converts this into useful electrical energy to top-up the electric motor powered battery system. This means that the battery system is constantly under charge and unlikely to every run down.

And it all happens without you, the driver, having to make power-diverting decisions. The Prius system diverts the power to where it's needed and draws the power from either the engine or the battery source when it's needed.

With all this clean driving ability, some will consider the Prius to be too sedate a car to drive. The Prius comes with an impressive 10.9 seconds acceleration time on a 0 to 100km/hr race, which is a match for many cars including new turbo-diesel models. And it's a shade faster than its nearest rival on the market, the Honda Civic Hybrid.

With all of this hybrid technology, you expect the Prius to be squeaky clean in emission terms. The economy figures are impressive at 4.3 litres/100km (65.5mpg), making it one of the thriftiest cars on the market. With a CO2 rating of just 109g/km, the Prius is in the lowest road tax band, Band A with a low €100 per year rate.

That's a further encouragement to consider Prius along with lower prices following the VRT changes, where the price has dropped by almost €3,000. The Prius comes with a list price of €27,005 before delivery charges, making it more competitive than the Honda Civic Hybrid at €28,825. In a rational and practical sense, the Toyota Prius is the obvious choice for many motorists, but then car buying is not always about rational decisions. The Prius style is wedge shaped with a styling that doesn't appeal to everyone. But it is very aerodynamic, which adds to its economy.