Hybrid fever!
My father celebrated his 60th birthday by buying a bicycle. It was the first time in his life he’d bought one brand-new. (He’s never bought a car, not even a used one.)
I on the other hand, plan to celebrate my 35th birthday by buying a brand-new hybrid. Depending when the new Prius comes out, and depending on availability, this might be an early or a late birthday present. And I’ll give my dad our trusty, only-100,000-km driven 1992 Sentra. 
I’ll definitely consider the new Honda hybrid, and will take the Chevy Volt for a spin, but realistically think I’m captivated by the Prius cachet: they were hybrid before hybrid was cool, and I want to support that. Also, half the US grid is coal-based (with dirty, old-school coal plants at that) — so I don’t see an environmental benefit for plug-in vehicles: you’re switching from a dirty fuel (oil) to a very dirty fuel (coal).
It’s true the Canadian grid is much different — only 16% comes from coal — but our grids are interconnected.
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The rumour seems to be that LG Chem has won the competition to be the Volt’s battery supplier. It’s a publicly-traded company, so if the rumour is true, there might be money to be made there… that is, if LG Chem is well-run, and the stock price doesn’t already reflect forward revenue expectations from the Volt…