Toyota Prius Plug-In (2012) priced from £27,895

Toyota is about to launch the Prius Plug-In hybrid in the UK and today confirmed it'll cost £27,895. Clever tech comes at a price - the regular Prius costs from £21,560.

The price of the plug-in Prius hybrid would be even higher without the Government's £5000 grant. Take that incentive away, and the Prius Plug-In's price swells to £32,895.

There's no arguing with the tech on board. It's the first Prius with a new lithium-ion battery, which gives a significantly longer range and higher speeds when in EV mode. As the car runs in electric mode more of the time, Toyota calculates the CO2 emissions to be just 49g/km.

That makes it among the cleanest hybrid cars on sale in Europe - bringing numerous tax breaks and zero-cost road fund licence in the UK.

This is a plug-in hybrid car, so the idea is that owners plug it in overnight to top up the battery and use it as often as possible in EV mode. But when the battery does run low, you won't be stranded - instead, the regular Prius's 1.8-litre petrol engine kicks in to charge up the level.

CAR's editor Phil McNamara drove the clever-clogs Prius last year - click here for his Prius Plug-In review.

He reported that it would reach nearly 60mph in electric mode - around double the EV ability of a regular Prius - and that it magnified the existing strengths of the Prius: namely, its refinement and ease of use.

The Toyota Prius Plug-In hybrid lands in UK dealerships from 9 July 2012. Standard equipment is generous, including a head-up display, DAB digital radio, Toyota Touch and Go Plus with satellite navigation, voice recognition, Bluetooth, reversing camera and LED headlamps.

By Tim Pollard