I'd gladly pay extra to Toyota if they offered a plug-in hybrid. I hope they are listening!

The 10/10 EV, gas example is flawed because the gas engine would be cold, and the first 10 miles on a cold gas engine will not be anywhere near the "EPA" rating. Also, the gas engine is used for heating the cagin in cold weather.

I'd rather see solar cells integrated into the top of the Prius to provide additional "free" power to the EV system while driving. Bonus points if it can charge the HV battery while parked, too.

Yes they are the wave of the future... well if anyone is willing to listen to the researchers and scientists. many including Dr. Andrew Frank a scientist at UC-Davis who have developed several plug-in hybrids using the Chevy Suburban, the Mecury Sable and the... PRIUS says that this is the easiest, cheapest and best solution to easing our dependence on foreign oil.

the best part is that even if a whole hog movement towards this happened today, it will take 15-20 years just to get a 50% penetration of plug in hybrids on the road.

sadly, 50% of the hummers bought today will still be on the road in 16 years, its 17 years for passenger cars, so we will have plenty of time to develope alternative renewable energy sources.

plus if using sources like solar, it takes 35-45 years to recoup the cost of solar if using it to generate electricity (that is based on 6-8 cents/kwh) but only takes 8 years if using the solar to replace gasoline at $3/gal

i saw a conference that was held in Spokane on Oct 5, that discussed the impact on the global oil supply and how different scenarios could affect the Pac northwest. i discussed some of the highlights in my blog...interesting stuff

I haven't read the article yet but Toyota did what it had to to popularize the Prius and therefore turn a profit. Then they can do more research and development with that money. Toyota saw the ill effects of the GM EV1 sales and decided that Americans are too busy, ignorant or lazy to plug in a car or even care to. Americans want to just step on the gas and go (usualy from 0 - 60 in 5 seconds). Another reason possibly why American Prius is missing the EV buttton. The easier a product is, the better it sells to the masses.

I'm just guessing here of course.

the EV failed not because it was a bad idea, GM's handling of it was bad, the timing was good because we needed to get into it then but gas being just over a buck a gallon, no one was willing to sacrifice a thing...

now that its $3 a gallon and more likely to go up than down, people are willing to give up things, especially when the gas bill starts taking away from the dinner table or the mortgage...

also the EV had limited range under all circumstances making it at best a niche product. the plug in hybrid still has the range all of the time with the ability to get super high efficiency most of the time

Cool. I need to read this article when I get the chance. Thanks for clearing that up.

a better read or listen actually would be the conference i mentioned. it can be heard at www.tvw.org

another good site is http://setamericafree.org

they have a modded Prius that for every 10 miles of additional EV range they are adding $1000 to the price. iow, a $30,000 Prius would satisfy over 90% of the driving needs of US without burning a drop of gas...

If the Prius had solar panels covering the roof and hood, you might be able to get the equivalent of about 1/9 of a gallon of gas a day, based on average sunshine
in the U.S. See this web page

There are substantial rumours from credible (internal) sources that say Toyota are already developing plug-in hybrids and a 60 mile EV range PHEV is being tested this year.

The limiting factor is still the cost of the battery. Once the cost comes down below $200/kWh everyone will be driving plug-in hybrids.

there has already been several AER vehicles built including a 100km AER (100 kilometer or 60 mile All Electric Range). some costs based on using a $21,000 base Prius was $24,000 for the 30km AER and about $29,000 for a 100km AER.

the latter would enable people to fullfill 90% of their driving needs without burning a drop of gasoline. in my area, that equates to about 60 cents per gallon.

Solar panels just don't have the density to make them even close to economical. If you don't believe me, just look into covering your roof with solar panels to offset home heating/cooling costs. I've done it. They are still WAY too expensive to even come close to covering their cost.

Now if they offered a plug-in hybrid that got the first 60 miles of every day on almost entirely electric mode alone, that would be something to consider trading the 04 and 05 (yes, I have 2 Prii in for!

Toyota, blow them away with a plug-in hybrid!! I'll take 2 of 'em!!

"Toyota has been somewhat befuddled by this mutation of its Prius. Hanging additional batteries and electronic controllers onto the Prius's meticulously developed powertrain must make the engineers in Nagoya cringe."

Hmmm, sounds fishy to me. Anyone using a phrase like "baffled scientists" should be writing for the National Enquirer.

I would sooner expect that the Toyota engineers already played with these alternatives. Modelling the system in software lets you do that kind of "what-if" analysis easily. They are probably smirking, not cringing, as they see their system's versatility demonstrated.

The dynamics of a Camry or Highlander are different than a Prius, so their software is probably already versatile enough to handle something as simple as a higher-capacity battery. Surely they would not want to have to recode from scratch for each new model, so the code is probably able to be recalibrated for the new components with little more than a new table of coefficients.

Man, it would be great to see the code this car is running...

<_< Howdy kinghuang

About solar cells on the roof......

Can you imagine a Texas hail storm's effect on roof-mounted solar cells?

I tried to purchase a Toyota EV RAV4. Toyota cancelled the program in midstream stating "lack of consumer demand." Toyota and other manufacturers actually discouraged the EV RAV4 and other electric vehicles.

I strongly welcome a Toyota EV Prius - one that both plugs in and makes use of photovoltaic panels. PV panels not just integrated into the body, but one that also has PV glass - where the glass serves a dual purpose, a normal window and photovoltaic. My daily commute is 60 mi round trip. I could go months without ever refueling with gasoline. Talk about cost savings and easy on the ecosystem!

With even a modest amount of PV panels at home, an EV Prius would be the vehicle of first choice.

I wonder how the rise of PHEVs will affect power generation on the grid? Right now the primary sources of base load are coal and nuclear. If that doesn't change anytime soon, then PHEVs will have a steady rising and adverse impact on the air quality. I would imagine that a large fleet of PHEVs would put a pretty massive load on the grid. Where are we going to get the power from? Certainly there aren't gonna instantly be hundreds of thousands of PHEVs on the road all of a sudden, but we'll have to really ramp up power generation capacity to match it and the steady increase in energy consumption that's happening otherwise. Of course if more efficiency measures were taken there could be a lateral trade off. Unfortunately only higher energy bills will force that to happen.

you are right!! IF using solar to replace electricity. it takes an average of about 35-45 years to recoup the cost...

but if using solar electricity to replace $3 gasoline, you could pay for the solar panels in 8 years.