Green Options

After writing yesterday about the hoopla surrounding the alleged leaked pics of the 2010 Toyota Prius, Toyota has released a statement on its Open Road Blog confirming that these are indeed marketing shots of the 2010 Prius.

>>> view more pics of the 2010 Prius here

In a post on the Open Road Blog entitled “The Real Deal?” Toyota says:

Many of you will have seen by now photographs on sites like PriusChat, Jalopnik and AutoblogGreen of a vehicle said to be the new Prius.

We thought we’d take a moment to confirm that the car shown in these unauthorized photos – at least the ones we’ve seen so far - is indeed the new Prius.

Alleged pictures of the 2010 Toyota Prius were posted on an online forum called PriusChat yesterday. Since then, there has been much debate about whether they’re real or a photoshop job. The general consensus is that some of the pics are probably real and some are fake.

I don’t tend to lend credence to leaked marketing-grade photos, but these particular ones are so good it’s difficult for me to discount them.

Photo doctoring aside, one of the most intriguing claims is that Toyota is purposely leaking 2010 Prius pics in the hope they will subsequently go viral. Adam Vaughan of smartplanet claims that Toyota UK told him they have been “seeding blogs” with “corners and details” of the next gen Prius.