Prius inter pares?

I was watching a nice podcast saturday morning, a clip from National Geografic Podcast (which by the way I reccommend to anyone as they are very short clips but full of neat stimuli). Among other things it showed an Arizona guy who modded his Toyota Prius into a plug-in hybrid, that is a car that runs both on conventional fuel and electricity AND can be recharged plugging it to the grid. The guy in the video stated that he could pass from 45 miles per gallon (that is about 20 Km/l) to 100 miles per gallon (about 50 km/l), so the first thing i tought was "neat!"... but then I actually did some math and a bit of my admiration for the Prius wore off.

Let's not be rush, I am still all in favour of hybrid cars and if I had a lot of bucks I'd surely get a Prius and perhaps I'd hack it to plug-in. What made me wonder is that 45 miles per gallon is already the fuel consumption of my current car, a very ordinary Fiat Punto with a little-yet-brilliant 1.3 turbocharged diesel engine. So what's the point of paying 26.000 Euros (that's almost 40k dollars!) and lugging around a load of chemicals which I seriously doubt are all that environmet-friendly?
Well, it must be said that the two cars I am talking about sit in very different categories (high-end sedan vs. mid-level compact), so I'm not going to pull further my comparison, but still I can't help thinking that all the benefit of the hybrid drive is merely wasted to carry around the extra weight, plus for my dayly commute and the occasional little trip the Punto is already too big: why drive in a 4 passengers car when I never have more than one passenger? Yet for some reason 2 seat cars are all either super sporty cars or however they cost and drink as much as four seaters (somebody said Smart?).

I have stated at the beginning of the post that I am still in favour of such cars and I'd still buy one if I could, I've got a series of reasons for that:

• I think that reseach will lead to significant achievements in this directions, but in order to do this the market has to support the effort showing that the demand for "green" cars do exist and is profitable for the manufacturers (Listen up GM!). The DIY plug-in hacks in the garages of many amateurs and the plans for version featuring a solar panel are clear signs to me.
  
• Driving a Prius would broadcast a positive message to everybody in town, it is the best andidote I can tink to the spreading SUV epidemy: "look, I'm cool, I care for the environment and I don't need to drive a truck to demonstrate that I can please my lady" (no offense meant for those who drive real trucks, my grandpa did it and I have a great respect for the category).
• It still is a high end sedan with the fuel consumptions of a tiny economy car, and I like the design (though I must say I'm the only among my friends who does).

This said, I have to report that the same Smart website I already quoted above, is now showing an intersting picture of a Smart with "micro hybrid drive". Is it the answer to my prayers? I'll check it in my next coffee-break and we'll see.

Edit. As I feared the Hybrid Smart is a nice commercial move: The "Micro Hybrid Drive" is not hybrid at all, instead it just turn on and off the conventional internal combustion engine to optimize the engine use. It is a welcome move, and surely a nice idea, but to call it hybrid is just false. Moreover, even with this misleadingly named trick all the models available from the website but one (the 33 kW diesel common rail, which achieves the admirable goal of 3o Km/l) consume more than my current Fiat Punto, which is twice as big and heavy. So not only the revolution has not arrived yet, but I would also question the good faith of the manufacturer's commercial strategy. Too bad :(

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