Toyota developing a plug-in gas hybrid
Posted on Monday, August 18, 2008
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — The man running much of Toyota Motor Corp. ’s research on rechargeable electric vehicles says the company’s approach is the least costly way to get great mileage and performance in the near term.
Toyota plans to bring a plugin hybrid vehicle to market sometime in 2010, and Justin Ward, manager of the automaker’s advanced powertrain program in the United States, said the design will be similar to that of the current Prius, the most popular gas-electric hybrid in the nation.
The plug-in will have new lithium-ion batteries that can be recharged from a home outlet. Yet unlike General Motors Corp. ’s planned Chevrolet Volt, it won’t rely completely on an electric motor to turn the wheels.
While it can run in electriconly mode, Toyota’s plug-in will have a small internal combustion engine that can assist the electric motor in a “blended” mode, Ward said.
The Toyota approach, Ward said, will be less costly than the “series” design GM is de- veloping. The Volt will have an internal combustion engine, but it will be used solely to recharge the batteries.
Series designs, Ward said, have larger, heavier battery packs and larger electronic components to go with them.
“All that stuff adds to the cost,” he said last week at the Center for Automotive Research Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, Mich.
“Going to a blended mode, you can still get that same performance, almost the same, or nearly identical environmental benefits, but at much decreased cost,” Ward said.
Ward would not reveal the target price for Toyota’s new version. The current Prius, which can’t be plugged in for recharging but runs on gas and electric power, has a base price of $ 21, 500.
Ward said that like GM, Toyota has been testing lithium-ion battery packs in the lab and in prototype cars. Toyota’s power packs are made by a joint venture it has with Panasonic, which is owned by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.
Experts say lithium-ion batteries are much smaller and have more energy output than current nickel-metal-hydride batteries used in most hybrid vehicles. But battery and car makers are still trying to work out issues with heat dissipation and handling the weight of the batteries.
Toyota, Ward said, already has a lithium-ion hybrid model that has been on sale in Japan in limited numbers for many years.
“We have a lot of experience with lithium,” Ward said. “We’re pretty confident with which chemistries work and which don’t work.”
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