If you like the Prius but the only thing holding you back from buying one is the cargo room, you'll like the Prius V. With the car, Toyota hopes to greatly expand the market for potential Prius customers, and early test drives seem to confirm that the car won't disappoint from a value or quality standpoint.

But with Toyota readying to launch the mass-market Prius Plug-in the United States within the next year, one can't help but wonder whether the Prius V might also get the plug-in treatment. Given that the car is really just a larger Prius, it seems like a no-brainer for Toyota to eventually sell the Prius V in a plug-in version as well.

"We don't have any plans right now to deliver a plug-in version of the Prius V," said Ron Ishii, Senior Field Engineer for Toyota to PluginCars.com. "But the engineers and designers don't leave any possibilities out of the equation. The Prius V packaging is very similar to the Prius on purpose. In the back of the car under the floor where the battery sits, the packaging is almost identical, so the larger battery required of the plug-in system could fit there the same as it does in the Prius Plug-in."

According to Ishii, Toyota is using the Prius Plug-in Hybrid as a way to gauge how best to move ahead with adapting the plug-in technology to other vehicles. If consumers show that they are willing to trade off higher cost for the 12-mile all-electric range of the Prius Plug-in, then Toyota will start moving the plug-in system to its other Prius family cars.

"Hopefully the success of the plug-in Prius will help us move towards the release of a plug-in Prius V," said Ed Laroque, National Marketing Manager for Toyota Advanced Technology Vehicles. "We're going to monitor consumer demand for the Prius Plug-in, we're going to monitor how successful the Prius V is and we're going to listen to our customers. If our customers demand a plug-in from us we will deliver it."

The upcoming Ford C-Max will be the closest competition for the Prius V, and the fact that Ford will be releasing both a hybrid and plug-in hybrid version of the C-Max could also push Toyota to make a plug-in version of the Prius V.

"We have a million U.S. sales of the Prius and we will continue to be the dominant player in that arena," said Laroque. "But with that said we will absolutely be looking at the competition—Honda announced they will be delivering a plug-in hybrid, Ford will be in the mix and the Volt is already out there. If we need to adjust our product strategy to remain on top, and that means we need to add a plug-in Prius V, we will do it."