On 12/07/2009 02:22 PM, Jed Rothwell wrote:
[This is a quick translation]
Toyota will sell plug in hybrid in 2011
Yomiuri, Dec. 7, 2009
On Dec. 4 Toyota announced plans to begin selling a plug in hybrid
(PHV) model in late 2011 that can be plugged into ordinary household
current. Target sales in the U.S. will be approximately 15,000
vehicles per year, and it will go on sale in Japan at the same time.
The price is expected to be around 3 million yen ($33,400). The
world's automakers are in a race to produce next generation eco-cars,
and Toyota has judged that rather than a pure electric car, a PHV will
be more practical because it has a greater range.
I think it's peculiar that people typically -- or at least frequently --
talk about the /range/ of a PHV versus a pure electric as being a major
differentiator.
The range seems almost irrelevant as an issue, when we compare it with
the refueling problem. With today's technology, refueling a pure
electric vehicle takes a major chunk of time, and can only be done at
certain locations. Refueling a hybrid takes a few minutes and can be
done at any gas station. In today's world, this makes an enormous
difference.
Furthermore, if you blow it and run out of fuel on the road, with a PHV
all you need is a lift to a gas station and back (and the availability
of a gas can) and you're back in business. (If you're in a suburban or
urban location when you run out, you can probably *walk* to the nearest
gas station and dispense with the lift.) With a pure electric, if you
run out of "gas", you need a tow!
A hypothetical PHV with a range of 150 miles could be driven from Boston
to California, and it would be only slightly less convenient than
driving a pure gas car with a range of 450 miles. You'd have to stop
more often, but that's all. A pure electric with a range of 300 miles,
OTOH, would be a pure nightmare to drive cross-country.
The thing that differentiates a PHV from a pure electric is that a PHV
can switch to pure-gas ("explosion engine") mode when necessary, and can
continue in that mode as long as necessary to get you where you're going
(with occasional gas stops), and that's a big difference. "Range" is a
red herring.
The goal is produce the car at a lower cost than a pure electric vehicle.
Toyota will equip the car with high performance lithium ion batteries.
On batteries alone the car has a range of 20 km, and when the
batteries run out, the hybrid engine then powers the car. This exceeds
the range of today's pure electric cars (which have a range of about
100 km),
This looks like there's a clause missing. 20 km < 100 km and no other
range number was cited.
and Toyota hopes it will take the lead in the eco-car market. Sales in
the U.S. are being given a high priority because California has
mandated that a certain percentage of total car sales must be highly
efficient eco-cars, and the regulations are expected to be tightened.
