Plug-ready Prius: Toyota will roll out 500 plug-in hybrid cars later this year by adding lithium-ion batteries to the 2010-model Prius unveiled yesterday at the Detroit auto show. Toyota is a full year ahead of GM’s schedule for the Chevy Volt plug-in but behind China’s BYD, which launched its F3DM plug-in sedan in China last month.
Toyota Motor
The new Prius is designed so that its battery pack can be swapped out for a plug-in lithium-ion battery.
Today at the North American International Automotive Show, in Detroit, Toyota announced that later this year, it will release a version of the Prius hybrid car whose battery can be recharged from an ordinary power outlet. By moving up the delivery data of the plug-in vehicle--originally scheduled for 2010--Toyota has slipped ahead of GM, whose Chevy Volt plug-in is promised for late 2010.
Toyota's fidelity to hybrid technology marks a sharp contrast with rivals such as Renault and Mitsubishi, which are planning to leapfrog the hybrid in favor of fully battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs). At the auto show, several U.S. automakers appear to be leaning in the same direction, with Ford Motor, in particular, vowing to release an EV commercial van next year and an EV commuter car in 2011.
Even Toyota is hedging its bets, presenting a battery-powered EV based on its four-seat iQ and promising to begin selling a similar EV commuter car in the United States by 2012. But Toyota explicitly ruled out abandoning hybrid technology anytime soon, issuing a definitive statement on the eve of the Detroit show calling hybrids its "long-term core powertrain technology."
The 2010 Prius available to consumers will still come equipped with a nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) battery pack and no plug, but Toyota says that it is "plug-in ready"--designed and engineered to accept a lighter and more energy-dense lithium-ion battery pack that can be charged from the grid. Toyota will also produce 500 lithium-powered plug-in Priuses for its commercial and government leasing customers starting later this year. Toyota-Panasonic joint venture Panasonic EV Energy will supply the lithium batteries.
The fact that the plug-in battery pack can be swapped in for an ordinary hybrid battery suggests that it will be relatively small, and that the plug-in Priuses will have a smaller electric-only range than the Volt and the Chinese-built BYD F3DM. The plug-in vehicles that Toyota has been testing in Japan, France, California, and the United Kingdom are Priuses equipped with a second NiMH battery pack that gives them less than 10 miles of electric-only range.
Limiting the battery size is a conscious decision. Recent studies suggest that a limited amount of electric-only range may be optimal for plug-ins, especially in the United States, where half of electricity generation is coal fired. A working paper by Duke University researchers, released in November, predicts that plug-in hybrids storing enough electricity to travel 40 miles on a charge--like the Chevy Volt--will offer few if any greenhouse-gas reductions relative to conventional hybrids. Such long-range plug-ins will likely also cost more per mile, thanks to the high price of the lithium-ion batteries required to store the electricity.
In contrast, research to be delivered today by Carnegie Mellon University mechanical engineer and design expert Jeremy Michalek at the National Academy of Sciences' Transportation Research Board meeting finds that plug-ins with just 20 miles of electric range are likely to best conventional hybrids in both cost and carbon footprint--assuming they are charged frequently.
The electric propulsion system for GM's new plug-in hybrid gives a silent yet powerful ride.
A spinoff from the Rocky Mountain Institute has developed a 100-miles-per-gallon plug-in hybrid.
This article is truly dumb - it quotes results from universities as to the carbon foootprint
of electric cars as if they knew : 1) what the battery packs will actually cost and 2) what the carbon footprint actually will be when the number of EVs becomes meaningful (more than 10 years after their introduction). Any study that assumes the current state of these all-important characterisitcs is totally without value. A123 Systems execs have predicted a halving of battery costs within 5 years - that completely destroys these short-sighted and brainless university studies right off the bat. Add to that the knowledge that the power generated 10 years from now certainly will not have the same carbon component and we have another fact that makes these studies nothing but attempts to make news,
which is clearly what they are. There is also the more important consideration that these narrow-visioned studies don't even mention - the avoidance of oil - which I consider more important than any carbon reducing elements and in this regard, 20 mile range plug-ins are about half as effective as those with a 40 mile range, which can easily be shown to reduce commuting gas consumption by well over 90%. I'm amazed that
this publication would publish such useless study results without even a glimmer of intrelligent analysis. This is embarrassing.
The review was about Toyota announcing that the new model Prius comming out will have the ability to later be converted to a plug-in hybrid. They then site a study that says that for right now due to battery costs and weight that the current "sweet spot" for the technology would be around a 20 mile EV range. I beleive it is a nod to the wisdom of Toyota's choice to allow for later updates to the Prius vs. the Chevy Volt. I admit I was all excited by the Volt until I saw the estimated prices. In these uncertain times I don't see many people paying $40K+ for a hybrid. So unless Chevy offers models with shorter range or can get some major incentives I see it more as a publicity stunt than a pracitcal car. Personally I would prefer a pure EV over a hybrid as it is a simplier system and I just don't drive very far. But that is another discussion.
Confirming that GM's Volt will be first
This article is very misleading, it states that 2010 Toyota Prius "will still come equipped with a nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) battery pack and no plug" and that EV version will only be sold to fleet operators. This totaly nulifies the article title and the first three paragraphs. The article seems to be a Toyota publicity effort to upstage General Motors and the Volt.
It is more important to cut our oil consumption as soon as practical, this will help lower carbon emissions, but right now I'm more woried about $4 gal gasoline and car to drive to work.
This article is also an example why we need to let the scientists and engineers work on our "carbon footprint" a little more until they get their facts straight.
Re: Confirming that GM's Volt will be first
...at the time you are writing this comment, gasoline is not $4/gal, but lower than $2/gal in most of the USA. Facts are not imaginary things, so you should try to stick to them.
PS - the article is very clear, stating that the new Prius batteries will be swappable for plug-in batteries. 500 government fleet vehicles will start out as an experimental fleet, to see how plug-ins behave in the hands of average people, other than electric enthusiasts.
What's so hard to understand? Read it again! :))
Seems to me that we are barking up the wrong tree with the strategy of forever increasing cost and weight for these vehicles by adding more energy storage.
I think it makes more sense to create a system where cars can pick up electricity along the way.
First, you need energy storage that can charge quickly - - like flywheels or ultra-capacitors instead of (or in addition to) batteries. Next you have a means of transferring the energy to the cars. This may be a "third rail" that the car gets power from or some form of buried cable that interacts with the car briefly to charge the storage medium.
Alternatively, a short plug-in time to an AC outlet would do it.
Norm
It would cost the equivalent of 60 cents a gallon to charge and drive an electric car.The electricity to charge the car could come from solar or wind generated electricity.If all gasoline cars,trucks,and suv’s instead had plug-in electric drive trains, the amount of electricity needed to replace gasoline is about equal to the estimated wind energy potential of the state of N.D.This past year the high cost of fuel so seriously damaged our economy and society that the ripple effects will be felt for years to come.Why not invest in setting up some alternative energy projects on a national basis, create clean cheap electricity,create millions of badly needed new green collar jobs, and get out from under our dependence on foreign oil.What a win-win situation that would be. There is a great new book out called The Manhattan Project of 2009 Energy Independence NOW by Jeff Wilson. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in alternative energy.
A complete Li-Ion PHEV conversion kit is available right now under $2000 on ebay. You don't need to wait for Prius 2012 or Volt 201X
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200344551230
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YankeeBruce
21 Comments
Free Energy
So, regenerative braking in city driving will "max out" the batteries in an EV!
If that is so, then city dwellers can generate energy for free.
Clearly this can not happen, there is some loss in the system and the battery must be recharged from an external source somewhere in the use cycle.
Over hyping the technology for EV's will cause the general public to turn away from the eventual commercial products.
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Gurthang
52 Comments
Re: Free Energy
The person was refering to the current Prius which has a small battery compared to the plug-in varients. And because of that the current Prius treats the battery like a buffer always trying to keep it full enough to "boost" the car in most acceleration conditions and empty enough to store braking energy. However in some driving situations it is possible to "fill" the battery and thus it will have to dump the excess energy.
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