Ahead of its world debut on September 15 at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show, Toyota today released the first official photograph of the new Prius Plug-in Hybrid Concept. While Toyota did not disclose any specific information on the car, the Japanese automaker said that in early 2010, more than 150 units of the plug-in version of the Prius will be leased to selected fleet customers as part of an extensive field trial in Europe.

The automaker's main objective with the road-test project that will also be deployed in Japan as well as in the USA is to investigate and further evaluate the technology and performance of plug-in hybrids in real life conditions.

We'll have more details on the plug-in Prius concept car closer to the Frankfurt Show opening.