It's a little unnerving to sit at a traffic lights and only hear the sound of the aircon fan, knowing that you're going to need power to accelerate at any moment and there's no engine running.

And then you get a green and press gently on the accelerator and the Toyota Prius II whispers away. Press harder and the engine can be heard cutting in to provide more punch. Maybe. Depends on just how hard you push, or whether you're going uphill.

We've been here before, of course, with Prius I, but the next generation will bring a number of improvements when it goes on sale at the end of November. The most notable being the size aqnd shape.

Prius has metamorphosed from a dowdy C-segment small family car to a 21st-century styled executive sized luxury car. Which may cost around E30,000 when the negotiations with the manufacturers and the Government are complete.

It may be even less in the end, if Toyota Ireland can persuade our political leadership that they could really gain credibility for their oft-bleated concern for the environment by rewarding a technology that IS doing something about it.

Currently, Prius buyers - and there are about 40 owners of Prius I out there - can get a rebate of 50 per cent of their VRT after purchase. There's an argument that it should be more, though our gambling minister for finance prefers the negative view that if he favours a particular technology, then 'they'd all be at it'.

Duhh ... even Charlie McCreevy will be a forgotten man before that could make any impression on his revenue collection.

Anyway, Prius II has a few more tweaks over the current car, both in powertrain and underpinnings. The suspension, for instance, is borrowed from Corolla at the front and Avensis at the back and appears on first drive to provide a much better balance than the springs and strains of Prius I.

There's a longer wheelbase too, related to Avensis rather than Corolla, which adds to the big-car feel that's going to make the hybrid car a better contender in the market.

And as far as the hybrid technology is concerned, the new car's propulsion system has been developed to be more seamless in its mixing of petrol and electric power, as well as being more efficient. Petrol consumption of more than 60mpg is routinely achievable, while C02 emissions which are taxably more important in most other countries are such that even the current Prius is the only petrol-powered vehicle to be exempt from London's Congestion Tax.

Making even more of the hybrid efficiencies was an ongoing target of the hybrid system's engineers, with the result that they saved even more weight by making the battery smaller again - it had already been reduced in the lifetime of Prius I - and shifting the powering of the climate control to the electrical system rather than by the petrol engine. The engine is still the familiar 1.5-litre size, with slightly increased power output.

Apart from emissions and better fuel economy, Toyota have significantly cut the lead content of components like the radiator, and even in the window tinting, further reducing the impact of the car on the environment.

The interior design and trimming of the Prius II is, like the exterior style, a quantum leap ahead of the current car. Again, befitting a high-tech vehicle, the instrumentation is digital, using what appears to be the same effective technology as is in the Yaris. The multi-purpose info screen in the centre of the dash is now touch-sensitive, but still provides something of an overload of detail, an all-too-common trend today.

In some respects, though, the oddest feeling I had while taking a first drive in the car was that it felt like a mid-50s Citroen DS 19. This should not be taken as a criticism, because that was a car which was almost 40 years ahead of its time in so many respects that it is not funny.

Driving the Prius II, however, was pretty well today with a strong tilt at tomorrow.

In reality, the driving dynamics are average for its place as far as handling and ride are concerned. The overall comfort is good to very good. The space, despite the steep raking of the front and rear cabins, is excellent and only rivalled by the Skoda Superb in the class.

Like the current car, the Prius II has a CVT automatic transmission, which fits very well with hybrid characteristics of merging petrol and electric power. I like these transmissions, others don't.

Acceleration of the car - which it should be stressed was a prototype - was pretty good, even if the CVT allowed some sound and fury under hard press. Remembering that there was only a 1.5-litre engine pushing (with electric help) a hefty lump of car to the performance of a 2-litre or better made me appreciate it all the more.

The power steering is 100 per cent electric, and suffers a little because it doesn't have the directness of a good hydraulically-powered system. On the other hand, the brakes are also managed with electronic control, and are much more progressive than in the outgoing car.

Bottom line is that Toyota in Ireland are hoping to sell 200 of these next year. They now have a chance to do it, if only because Prius II is a car that can compete with the likes of the new Honda Accord in terms of looking like what you've paid for it.

Still, it is really up to the Government to acknowledge something that tries to achieve the environmental mouthings of this country's leaders.