From the BBC: BBC NEWS | Business | Electric car subsidies unveiled You will note (if you can see the video), a Toyota engineer talking thru a prototype plug in Prius. 2 things of note here. No 1 - the car is regsistered "08" which means its an early 2008 car. Secondly, the "juice point" is labelled EDF - the French power company that is still partnering with Toyota in Europe. I would say this will encourage and bring forward this technology. Though it will still be expensive for users.