Just what the world needs
Another huge waste of otherwise useful nickel for a car that (if it matches the Prius) will do a stonking 60mpg- 10 less than a modern VW Polo and a massive 4mpg more than a VW Passat... 15 years ago.
Hybrids should be over 100mpg almost constantly or they're pretty much worthless- at the moment they're keeping up with, or have a tiny lead over, the best diesels- which are available for the same money and don't make you look like a tit. Even at 100mpg the environmental damage caused by making and shipping nickel metal hydride batteries all over the place would probably drag them waaay down in the environmental stakes.
Plus, how can 98bhp from 1.8 litres of engine possibly be considered efficient? Honda are pulling 50bhp more out from their normal road cars from the same amount of petrol. Going by energy out for energy in (proper energy efficiency), early-90s BMWs were more energy efficient than the Prius. Actually, on that basis the 1970 Dodge Challenger beats the Toyota Hybrids... and used a fraction of the energy to build... and was mostly steel so could be recycled very easily without particularly specialised equipment.