Toyota to make plug-in hybrid by 2010

Toyota Motor plans to produce lithium ion batteries next year for a plug-in hybrid vehicle available in 2010.

The company on Wednesday said that the plug-in hybrid will be "geared toward fleet customers in Japan, (the) United States, and Europe."

A joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic EV Energy plans to begin production of lithium ion batteries next year and move to full-scale production in 2010. Using the battery, Toyota plans to introduce a small electric vehicle for mass production.

Toyota's Prius, numbering a million sold, uses a nickel metal hydride battery. Lithium ion batteries, which are heavily used in consumer electronics, are being built into an upcoming generation of hybrid-electric and plug-in hybrid cars.

Later in the month, Toyota plans to establish a research-and-development center for next-generation batteries that outperform lithiom ion batteries.

The company, which also continues to invest in fuel cell vehicles, recently began a lease program in Japan.

Toyota disclosed on Wednesday its plug-in hybrid production plans at a company-sponsored environmental forum in Tokyo, where it outlined its greenhouse gas reduction and clean-technology plans.

[cbazza]

The included picture clearly shows that the battery pack is from Hymotion, yet there has been no announcements of anything between the two companies.

[jimmyhoops]

See, $4 a gallon gas leads to something positive! Now if they can only bridge the gap to fully electric cars that you can plug into any outlet with good range and decent performance, we'll be able to begin the wholesale abandonment of foreign oil altogether.

[Holly Klug]

We can fix the range problem. Abandon the interstate highways, and build an intermodal interurban electric rail network. Trucks and autos radio ahead their destination, are guided to a ramp, slide into a self contained electric rail car and get charged on the way to their destination. We shouldn't have given up so soon on those interurbans 60-70 years ago. We just need massive investment in our infrastructure.

[edgebert]

Dependence on foreign oil "siren song" premature
Oh jimmyhoops, your little fugue on all-electric automobiles neglects the mfg'ing, industrial, shipping, trucking components of the equation. Automobiles are such a small percentage of the over-all demand, jimmyhoops. Hopefully your detachment from reality is only momentary rather than 'wholesale'.

[Holly Klug]

Edgebert:
Autos use half of US petroleum. Trucks use another quarter. So cars and trucks use about 3/4 of the oil. Jet fuel is about 10% (maybe jets could partially be replaced by high speed rail links which are much more efficient). If electricity were made more abundant, many fuel oil usages could be reduced. Dad uses off peak electric to heat his rural house (and nobody here works for a power company). The real issue here is our competitiveness US vs Euro. We will be reduced to 3rd world status if we don't change due to our longer distances. The interstate highway system and airport system is a giant subsidy of inefficiency in the US.

[jemiller0]

It would be great if they came out with a Lithium Ion upgrade to the NIMH batteries for existing Priuses. i.e. not to make it a plug-in hybrid, but, just to improve the existing Prius. It's good news that the major car companies really are committing to plug-ins now. I don't see why GM doesn't just unmothball the EV1 and put a Lithium Ion battery in it. They already did all the design work for it. I wouldn't think it wouldn't be that difficult to switch to the newer better batteries. Afterall, they already did it once when they switched from lead acid to NIMH batteries.

[open-mind]

Several reasons I've heard: Limited range maeans limited appeal. Lithium batteries cost more than NIMH. The EV-1 (had they sold it instead of leased it) would have cost about $80K to be profitable. It's only a 2-seater, hence even more limited appeal. All these issues are being addressed in the Chevy Volt. I invite you to join the fun of following the creation of this car at gm-volt.com. FYI ... fleet vehicle Volts should be produced next year, about one year before Toyota.

[chuck_whealton]

This is absolutely great. Toyota and Honda continue to make great strides in hybrid vehicles.
And the United States based automakers are doing how much with hybrid technology? I think I keep forgetting because it's VIRTUALLY NOTHING.

[open-mind]

I believe you're mistaken. I invite to join the fun of following the creation of the Chevy Volt at gm-volt.com. The Volt is an electric drive plugin that will be fleet tested next year, about a year before Toyota.

[drblevy13]

An absolutely incredible idea... as long as the influx of new plug-in vehicles isn't connected to a grid mostly powered by oil and coal. Solar, wind, hydro, nuclear anyone?

[open-mind]

I've read the USA grid is about half coal. Most of the rest is nuclear, hydro, solar, and wind.

[brodie657]

GM had the opportunity to capture the electric and hybrid market but they didnt have the foresight and killed any chance of it. Once again they are playing catch-up to the Japanese car manufacturers - is it any wonder they are always losing money? They make stupid decisions.

Good for Toyota. They are producing something people want, and will make a bundle.

[open-mind]

You very accurately described the GM management prior to 2000. The new crew has been doing much better, but it takes a while to correct 20 years of damage from bad management. GM has announced they will be mass-producing the Chevy Volt starting in 2010. I invite you to join the fun of following the creation of this car at gm-volt.com. FYI ... fleet vehicle Volts should be produced next year, about one year before Toyota.

[LT73]

Re: GM, Ford and Chrysler...

On top of the stupid decisions regarding Fuel Consumption, they also continuously boggle the mind with poor design.

Take Ford for instance. The cars that stand out in my mind - The Contour, Taurus, Sable. These cars will go down in history as some of the ugliest cars ever made. Year after year these cars went through horrible design iterations, with each missing the mark in some way shape or form.

How about Chrysler? My favourite car from this years lineup would have to be the 300, and it's a friggin boat. Outside of the 300, (and the Viper => $100,000) there is not a single car that I would consider buying based on aesthetics. There are 33 different vehicles between Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep. Wanna take a guess at how many of them are fuel economical? What, maybe the Sebring? The majority of the lineup is, you guessed it - SUVs, minivans, and trucks.

And last, but not least, General Motors. They're still building the friggin Grand Prix! Come on guys, you have to be kidding me!? And still to this day, I see millions of Pontiac Sunbirds on the road. The sunbird gets my vote as the ugliest car ever made.

Even as a kid, what always boggled my mind was, why these horrible designs? Why must an affordable car look so awful? A nice looking car costs the same to build as an ugly one. And yet, year after year, there were all these iterations of horrible designs. It was as though they purposely made affordable cars ugly to make their 'high end' cars look good (I think I may have just answered my own question). The trouble is, bad design leaves a bad aftertaste. Once I see that a manufacturer has no pride (or taste), I have a hard time seeing them in any other way.

[open-mind]

I think most of the Saturn and Pontiac lines looks pretty great. The new Malibu looks pretty good too. Many people feel the Prius is pretty ugly, not to mention most of the Scions. To each his own I guess.

[Dimitrios Matsoulis]

There will shortly be loads of new hybrid models to choose from. However, as things stand at the moment, plug-in vehicles transfer the problem from the cars to power stations. Therefore, we always go back to the same renewable energy generation issue... As long as oil prices stay high there will always be pressure to do something about all those issues, let's hope it stays like that...
http://electronrun.com/

[open-mind]

Not entirely. Electricity can be made from renewables. And it can be made from domestic coal instead, reducing the need for foreign oil. And it's much easier to clean one coal plant than millions of cars. And even dirty coal plants are already cleaner than cars. It's a no-brainer ... electricity as a transportation fuel is the best short-term answer.

[EVcast]

Kudos to CNET for being perhaps the only news source that did not botch this Tokyo press release from Toyota. Every other site I saw misleads the readers in thinking that, like GM, Toyota has announced it will have PHEVs to *consumers* by 2010. This is still the 300 or so test fleet vehicles that they promised several weeks back. So you and me will still have to wait until 2012 to see something from Toyota -- as of now.

[RedJac101]

I have just two little problems problems with vehicles like these:
1- You plug it in, where is the power coming from? A polluting power plant?
2- I have heard horror stories about cell phone and laptop batteries over heating, catching fire, and blowing up. Now imagine that on a grand scale (an electric car).

[open-mind]

To answer your question, about 50% of the electricity comes from domestic coal, and most of the rest is from wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear. Even the coal plans are cleaner than cars. Also, the newer Lithium battery chemistries (unlike those used in laptops) cannot explode or catch on fire.

[jd.gtown]

Love the idea. Too bad there's so much hysteria produced by the media and politics about "global warming" (now known as "climate change" since global temps aren't rising right now). Still, coal-fired power plants produce energy MUCH more cleanly than any car. But then again, the word "coal" has been so demonized that logic no longer applies. And then there's nuclear energy (another victim of media and political demonization) that even one of the founder's of Greenpeace has reversed his position on and is publicly supporting as one of the best answers. Demonization is a hard thing to overcome though since most people have let the media take the place of there own brains. Anyway, go Toyota!

[jsparrow_28]

It seems that the plugin hybrid concept has been hijacked by the "climate change" banner. This is a spin! Plug in hybrids may do one thing, they may decrease dependency on oil. But whether the technology is desired to combat "climate change" is an association at best. I don't believe global warming is caused by humans but I want a plug in hybrid. So why should I have to listen to people arguing about "climate change". I would be more convinced to listen to arguements about oil/dollar hegemony and a collapsing dollar if the world switches out of oil for the automotive industry.