Toyota Will Lease Plug-In Hybrids By End Of 2009

TOKYO — Toyota said Wednesday it will start leasing plug-in hybrid cars, that are even greener than its hit Prius, by the end of this year in the U.S., Japan and Europe.

Toyota Motor Corp., the world's top automaker, will start leasing 200 plug-ins in Japan, 150 in the U.S. and 150 in Europe, mostly for rental, such as through special government-backed programs, it said in a release.

Toyota will for the first time use lithium-ion batteries in the plug-ins. The batteries are already used in some cars but more common in laptops and other gadgets.

Toyota hybrids now use nickel-metal hydride batteries. Using a lithium-ion battery will produce more energy, allowing the car to run more as an electric vehicle, but there have been some technological hurdles.

A plug-in recharges from a regular household socket. When the battery runs low, it will start running as a regular hybrid so drivers don't have to worry about running out of juice on the road.

Automakers around the world are working on plug-in models. Recharging stations are expected to proliferate in the cities of the future, much like gasoline stands, for recharging.

The booming sales of the revamped Prius, which went on sale last month, have been a rare bright spot for Toyota.

Battered by the global slump and the strong yen, the maker of the Camry sedan and Lexus luxury models recorded its worst loss in its seven-decade history for the fiscal year ended March.

Toyota dealers have received 110,000 orders for the Prius in Japan. Toyota acknowledged this week an order placed this month won't get delivered until November or later.

Toyota leads the world in cumulative hybrid sales because of the popularity of the Prius, now in its third generation. The first-generation Prius went on sale in 1997.

Comments

[jbinders]

I hope the plug-in approach doesn't eliminate the current use of recharging the battery from the breaking system. If they keep the retentive breaking system it could reduce the need to plug-in. Imagine if driving charged your battery by 25%...then included a solar strip for the roof adding another 20%. I would cost pennies instead of dollars.

[KillTheMessenger]

Regenerative breaking adds no more than a couple of percent to the efficiency of the car. Of course they pulled that stop already on ordinary hybrids and in engineering you can play such a card only once.

A typical car, driving at highway speed uses about 10kW of power. If you want to generate 20% of that with a solar panel, that's 2kW. Add into the equation that the car moves only 5% of the time (typical use pattern of one hour of driving a day) and you need 100W of solar power. Since, on average, a solar panel produces 20W/m^2, that means you need 5m^2 of solar area.

My... what a mighty large sunroof you got there, grandma!

:-)

OK... fun aside. The same equation tells you that you can produce 100% of the energy for an electric car with roughly 25m^2 of solar panel area. That's the size of your garage roof. Problem solved by separation of concerns. The solar panels go on the garage, the car gets a regular roof and we build a smart grid.

[sienak]

Regenerative braking adds a lot of efficiency to the car, actually. See this, for example - regenerative braking can reduce fuel consumption by 10-25%: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-parts/brakes/brake-types/regenerative-braking5.htm

Everything I've read about plug-in hybrid cars says that they'll use regenerative braking. I think fully electric cars use them as well.

On the other hand, I do agree that solar panels make more sense on your garage (or on public garages) than on the car (although no reason not to put them there as well).

[Ping]

Because no one will buy this crap.

[alvdh1]

Is ping the sound between your ears when you make senseless commentary like nobody will buy this crap. I guess that explains why A123 Systems has a 6 month backlog of people waiting to convert their Prius cars to plugins. It further explains why BYD Auto has already launched their plugin and countless other are about to follow. It makes sense to buy a car that will go 40 miles on a gallon of gas when you can buy the same car as a plugin that travels 125 miles on a gallon of gas such as the A123 Prius conversion. Ping, Ping, Ping to the deniers.

[KillTheMessenger]

Well, you are right, of course, but for one thing: A123 Systems has a 6 month backlog... because they can't deliver. At least that's my best guess.

:-)

[Ping]

How many hybrids were sold last year?

[Overtone]

We will soon be able to cut the plug on plug-in hybrids!

Future cars will need no fuel and can become power plants when parked.

Revolutionary breakthroughs will make possible a Self Powered Internal Combustion Engine - SPICE.

A SPICE can be used to power a hybrid. It will need no fuel and end the need to plug-in, as the engine can run when parked and wirelessly transmit and sell power to the local utility.

The SPICE is powered by hydrinos. One barrel of water can equal several hundred barrels of oil. To learn more about SPICE and hydrinos see: www.chavaenergy.com Look under the heading HOW?

A second breakthrough is the MagGen. These magnetic generators, without moving parts, will replace batteries in electric cars, trucks and buses.

Scientists and engineers will doubt these technologies are possible until they have been validated by Independent Laboratories. That is an important step on the agenda.

Until now, car ownership has been an expense. Payments to car owners driving a hybrid with a SPICE, or powered by MagGen, are likely to be substantial.

When vehicles selling power to the grid fill a parking garage, it will have become a multi-megawatt power plant.

The cost of many vehicles might be paid for by utilities, as they purchase power whenever needed.

The parked cars each become decentralized power plants - a rapid, cost-effective path to a rebirth of the automobile industry.

And a permanent end to high oil prices!

[GearheadGeek]

I think you need to lay off the crack pipe there, bucko.

[jerryd]

This Spice, Hydrinos post is a scam, don't fall for it.

[kshawNCvoter]

Come on GM you can do it better. * the home team FTW*

[theubermensch]

Toyota=cars that last forever with great gas mileage, while kicking GM and their hummers' a#$ in the process. Goodbye Detroit your too behind in our fast moving technology innovated world. As one of the many tax shareholders in GM I vote to end it for good. We can replace jobs, or at least I hope. Once the greed stops and stupidity and you get off twitter we will perhaps move forward. Go japan and toyota and keep kickin a#4. They have toyota we have wal mart, no wait China does, oh well were fu$%^&!

[plantguy]

Why are we supporting companies overseas, oh yeah thats why our country is going backwards.

[KillTheMessenger]

We aren't supporting anybody overseas. We have let our standards fall below those of foreign manufactures, though. Now we need to import if we want to buy a quality product.

[theubermensch]

Exactly, 'insourcing' is killing us not outsourcing. America=bad fu#$%^& products.

[CoffeeWithGibbs]

actually toyota builds quite a few of their cars here in the U.S. with american workers. And I think the prius is built here too.

[KillTheMessenger]

No, sadly, the Prius is being built in Japan, still. Toyota had plans to bring production of the new Prius over to the US... and then the economy collapsed and they canned that plan, at least for now.

[baxtron]

toyota is expanding a factory in Indiana to increase production of futre Prius and Camary.

[KPinSEA]

Because the executives of our 'domestic' companies shipped as much work overseas as they could ... I might as well buy a car assembled in America from Toyota parts made in Malaysia as a car assembled in America from Ford parts made in Mexico.

I'll buy the best product that fits my needs, in other words, not the product with the most flag-waving in the commercials.

[alvdh1]

Our country is going backwards because people like you want to keep burning coal at any cost to the environment and human life from the foul pollution emmited from the smokestacks and the coas ash residue. By the way, most of the cars produced by Toyota and sold in America are made with American labor.

[ScreenName05]

Actually the Canadians are going to win. Zenn Motors is claiming it will have a street ready all electric out by the end of this year, based on battery-capacitor technology. The reality is that we may be entering a new era where there will be a lot of manufactures, who will slowly die off or buy each other up, just as occurred in the 1900 - 1950 evolution of the gas powered engine. This is going to be interesting because no large company is going to have the upper hand - and that means innovation. I just hope the U.S. can get its share.

[GearheadGeek]

The EEstor ultracapacitor technology they're talking about is vaporware (from the point of view of any impartial evidence at least.) I hope it is effective, if it does what EEstor claims it will be a great advancement in energy storage, but their claims strain the bounds of belief and they haven't shown much to "the world." And none of what they HAVE shown has been outside a controlled environment, to my knowledge.

[DRaymond]

Before you all go nuts about how the plug in hybrid is here note how Toyota is strictly limiting them to a particular number and only leasing them.

Sound familiar? Like how GM did the EV1?

This is a large scale field test of a technology that is not yet marketable. If it were even remotely profitable they wouldn't limit the number sold and if they didn't want to completely pull all of them at the end of the field trial they wouldn't require that they be leased only.

I am glad that Toyota feels that they are ready for large scale field trials, but don't make too much out of it.

[KillTheMessenger]

It's exactly the scenario of the EV1... however with one significant difference. Toyota will, hopefully, have learned from the PR disaster that was called the EV1 and they will support these vehicles for their life rather than to destroy them at will. GM never fully recovered from that poor decision in the eyes of the public.

[GearheadGeek]

The way Toyota dodged the PR bullet with their contemporary to the EV1 was by letting owners buy and keep them. I think they were RAV4 based... definitely based on a cute-ute platform. So, the basic platform of the vehicle was like one of their production models and they decided they could get away with letting people keep them. GM should have just sold the EV1s to lessees who wanted them with a tight legal agreement absolving GM of responsibility for the vehicle's operation and maintenance. Someone would still be demonizing them for stopping production, but at least there wouldn't be the "oh noes, they crushed them all!" rants.

[DRaymond]

One of the reasons GM pulled back on the EV1 is that they had a looming battery replacement issue. By relying on current generation lithium ion batteries these plug in hybrid Prius cars also have a bettery replacement issue. L-ion batteries have a shelf life from the time they are manufactured. It is why your laptop batteries are crap after about three years no matter how you use them. Toyota may handle it better from a PR standpoint, but if the battery tech hasn't changed by the end of the lease expect a quiet buyback at the end of the lease.

[LMPE]

It's about time!

[condor101]

Lithium Ion batteries and Plug-in technology is ready and working, but car companies like Toyota are dragging their feet. They and other manufacturers don't want truw electric-hybrid vehicles on the road that last 20-30 years, because they want consumers to buy gas cars that need replacement every 5-7 years. It's not according to their business model: Toyota sells cars.
Anyway, I'm driving my Camry until my order with Aptera is fulfilled.
Aptera is selling their electric vehicle this Fall for under $30,000 and 100 miles per charge. Aptera is also selling a hybrid vehicle in next year that gets a range of over 300 mpg. Take that Toyota Prius!!!!
Check it all out at aptera.com

[quiviran]

Wonder if it will be the design that the after-market has been doing (mo betta batteries in an existing Prius) or a new, series hybrid. One can hope.

[KillTheMessenger]

It's probably going to stay a parallel hybrid. A series hybrid would be much more challenging, still. I bet they are working on one, but I don't see them releasing a working model to the public anytime soon. I wouldn't expect mass produced series hybrids to be available much earlier than 2012.

[jsgaetano]

American companies are at least eight years behind the rest of the world now.

No research on hybrids, fuel cells, or even simple fuel efficiency... all of which consumers are going to demand from the next generation of automobiles.

Thank a conservative!

[jeg]

GM has been working on fuel cells since 1968, and has demonstrated now fewer than 5 models in the last 8 years. They have half a dozen (mild, admittedly) hybrids on the road, with more on the way, including the Vue plug-in. The Camaro and the newest Equinox are both hitting around 30 mpg without sacrificing performance.

Ford has the Fusion, a number of high efficiency vehicles in Europe, and has been working with Toyota and BMW (among others) to develop regenerative technology such as converting waste heat to electricity.

I'll admit, I have no idea what Chrysler's been working on, although they were partnered with Daimler for awhile, and shared some technology development. I believe the Smart cars came out of that partnership.

[GearheadGeek]

It's bad for GM that so few people realize that their two-mode hybrid system even exists... they have full-hybrid full-sized SUVs and trucks. They're expensive and don't return Prius-level mileage, but they make a big percentage improvement on conventional vehicles of the same type and are at least technically interesting, if not a good economic proposition at their offered prices.

[GearheadGeek]

GM has done considerable fuel-cell research in the past, and decided (rightly, in my opinion) that the technology is not real-world ready. There's no viable source for hydrogen, the materials required for the fuel cell stacks are expensive, and the systems are complex. The Clarity is by all reports a great car, but it's available only as a lease to a small, select group of people in a very limited geographic area. That's not a business model, it's at best research, at worst marketing.

[jeg]

Agreed. I have yet to see a concrete price to manufacture a fuel-cell vehicle, although rumor has it that they're comparable to a Bugatti Veyron in manufacturing cost. If they could actually be sold for less than $100,000, I suspect they'd be available already.

Instead both Honda and GM have test fleets (The Clarity, and the Equinox FCV, see "project driveway") of leased (or simply loaned) vehicles.

By contrast, electricity is easy to create, transport, and store, and with emphasis on battery development, I expect to see rapid leaps in energy density. Who knows? Maybe EEStor will release a real product.

[Jim Young]

You have heard of the Gm Volt, right? If not go to the gm-volt.com website.

It is a plug-in series hybrid that will allow you to go up to 40 miles before the engine kicks in. If you go less than 40 miles each day just plug it in and you use no gas. How's that for an advanced hybrid?

Yes, thank a conservative (Bob Lutz of Gm)

[Montreaux1991]

Note how it says LEASE instead of SELL.

Once again the oil lobby gets it's way. I smell "Who killed the electric car" again.

[mountainweb]

Wow, Marketing! What a concept and it appears that Toyota clearly understands the concept. If they can grasp the concept WHY can the shallow minds at GM not figure it out. Make, sell, rent an automobile that the majority of the marketplace wants, instead GM goes 175 Billion in debt and STILL does not seem to have a clue... Marketing, can anyone tell me why GM does not understand what that word means when THEY used to be the masters of it?

[Semaj51]

Now that GM stands for Government Motors, don't be surprise if the politicians don't change the name of Volt to "Vote"....