Toyota unveils new Prius hybrid

Toyota, the world's biggest carmaker, has revealed the latest revamp of its Prius petrol-electric hybrid in Japan.

The carmaker said it has had 80,000 advance orders in Japan. It is aiming for sales of 400,000 a year globally.

Incoming president Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the company's founder, said the future of cars rests on this model.

Prius is the world's best-selling hybrid, but Toyota's dominance of the sector has been challenged by rival Honda's cheaper Insight model.

The new Prius gets a combined 50 miles per gallon, compared with 46 mpg for the 2009 model, Toyota said.

It has not yet announced when the new version will be available outside Japan.

Worst loss

The carmaker is pinning its hopes on a new Prius boosting sales, after this month reporting its worst annual loss of 436.94bn yen ($4.4bn; £2.9bn) in the year to 31 March, due to the deepening recession and strong yen.

The Prius, launched in 1997, is now in its third generation.

By the end of April, Toyota said it had sold 1,028,000 of the cars worldwide, more than half of them in North America.

Toyota said its Japan prices for the Prius would start at just over 2m yen, or about £13,800 ($20,900), which is cheaper than the current Prius.

It also announced it will cut the price of the second-generation model on sale now, to 1.89m yen, the same price as Honda's Insight.

Stock market into buying frenzy; trading suspended for day

Hailing the decisive mandate to the Congress-led UPA, investors went into a buying frenzy, resulting in an unprecedented surge in the BSE Sensex, which rose by nearly 2,100 points and forced the authorities to suspend trading for the day.

Trading was suspended for two hours within seconds of opening of the market after the BSE surged by over 1,300 points and the authorities closed the floor immediately after trading resumed at 1155 hours. The BSE sensex closed 17 percent higher at 14,272.63.

Echoing the sentiment, the NSE index also rose by 20 percent, prompting the authorities to suspend trading for the day.



In two bursts, the 50-share Nifty rose over 712 points, a buoyancy that led to an all-round appreciation in share prices, which marketmen say is the first of its kind.

The BSE 30-share index zoomed to close at 14,272, up by nearly 2,100 points. The NSE index surpassed all the three upper limits of 10, 15 and 20 percent, forcing the authorities to suspend trading for the day.

With the UPA getting near a clear majority in the 15th Lok Sabha, economic reforms are set to get pace in all the sectors, a leading broker said.