A Toyota Prius LPG taxi exploded on Wednesday morning in Barcelona, Spain, injuring the driver who was traveling by himself and two other people that were behind the taxi in another car.
The cab driver suffered first-degree burns on his head, with the explosion also breaking glass doors and windows in the Nou Barris district. The hybrid vehicle had been adapted to run on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) only two weeks before, according to the taxi drivers’ union from Catalonia.
A third party with an LPG installation had modified the vehicle, and the LPG tank is said to be likely responsible for the explosion. Toyota Spain immediately issued a press statement saying that it doesn’t recommend that its vehicles converted to run on LPG.
“Toyota Spain disapproves the amendment of any of our vehicles (hybrid or not ) through the installation of LPG, as these facilities substantially change the operating conditions of the car and do not meet the requirements of Toyota Motor Corporation for technical approval,” reads the release.
Toyota said that it’s “technically impossible” for an unmodified Prius vehicle to explode like the LPG taxi. The automaker said it sent an engineer to Barcelona in order to analyze the wrecked car and issue a technical report with the findings.
By Dan Mihalascu
Hat tip to Hugo from Periodismo del Motor !
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