Forbes - Toyota to put plug-in Prius in production for 2010 model year

After reading the full article it sounds like GM is coming out with new hybrids, hope they get better mileage than the 2 stupid models they introduced. Hybrids with non impressive mileage

 

GM's Volt if they can get the Li-ion battery issue under control is a huge advancement....for some people. My wife for example would never have to buy gas again!! For me the proposed savings would be 'noticeable' but here I'd have to turn the tables and see if the gas savings were 'worth the extra price' to give up my Prius. Now there's a switch.

My daily commute is 150 miles. If 40 miles were 'gas free' ... but the vehicle cost $35000 ... I'd probably opt for a less expensive Gen 3 Prius that didn't have the PHEV option. I woldn't pay Toyota any extra for a PlugIn option either. I'd stay with the 'traditional' Prius, just updated.

Outside of the technical barriers to this new trend the makers have to assess just how many buyers there will be. If you live in midtown Manhattan on the 57th floor and park your current vehicle three blocks away on the street how useful is a PlugIn option?

 

If you live in midtown Manhattan on the 57th floor you don't really need any car on a regular basis. However, if you live in Connecticut and drive into the city, a PHEV might be very useful. And if you don't live downtown in the top five SMSAs, which most people don't, an EV or PHEV makes LOTS of sense.

 

I agree that the Volt concept is much better than modifying the Prius full hybrid to plug-in. However, as John pointed out in another thread, you'd still have to buy some gas for it because a gas engine must be run from time to time to keep everything lubricated, and gasoline goes stale so the tank has to be emptied (probably by running the engine, sonce the engine needs to be run) and re-filled from time to time.

In your case, the better solution is for your wife to drive a pure EV, and you keep your Prius. The Prius is there on the rare occasions when your wife needs to drive farther than the EV will go, and for whenever you take long trips together. If your wife's daily drive is within EV range, then a PHEV is a poor fit, assuming an EV is available.

 

I wonder when GM will stop stamping hybrid on their cars (and running tons of 'green' ads about it) simply because the motor shuts off at red lights. AND when will they plant a true HSD system in a nice lightweight mid sized car, that's on par w/ the Prius.

 

In answer to your question , a couple of others in return...
'What if the 4 main hybrid makers have decided NOT to compete against each other until the entire NA buying public is on board as regards hybrid technology?'
'What if GM is being allowed an open field to develop hybrid technology for trucks/SUVs because it's strength in the market is in heavy vehicles?'
'Whatever happened to the Tundra hybrid?'
'Did Toyota sell it's technology to GM quietly or did Toyota notice that GM's 2-Mode system was better than anything Toyota had on paper so it went back to the labs?'

 

I don't know ... with oil production past its peak, and gas ever spiraling upward, the gunboat Caddie SUV hybrid idea will likely become a kind of white elephant. But GM doesn't understand that, it seems. Likely, our culture will no longer buy into the idea we need 1,000's of lbs of extra dead weight for mom to simply go down & buy groceries. Maybe not at the current $3.30 national average, but certainly by $5 / gallon ... and at the current rate of fuel cost increases, that won't be too far off, unfortunately. Like Europe & Asia, most of our autos will have to downsize out of necessity, and that's not such a bid deal IMO.

Bring on the lighter PHEV's

 

hill-san, Agreed here, Japan's gas price has been around over $5 a gallon for many years so is Europe, thus other countries produces and digest fuel efficient vehicles. I have here, over _79_ new Sequoias in stock !

Customers comes in and look at them jealously but when they see the MPG figure on the stickers they all "sigh" and they says, I like the Big SUV but even Toyota can not produce the fuel efficient Big SUV..

Toyota bring on the fuel efficient behemoth that American housewifes love to drive.

 

Beware of too much optimism. The quoted maximum mileage on batteries alone probably assumes no cabin heat or air conditioning, headlights and tail lights off, no windshield wipers or rear-window defroster, etc. Turn them all on at the same time and your electric-only distance would likely crumble.

 

That's true. But only if she buys a Volt. If all she needs is that 40-mile range, why buy a Volt at all? The whole point of the Volt is that short trips are electric and long trips are gas. If his wife would never drive more than 40 miles, she could buy a pure EV instead. A 100-mile range is perfectly reasonable. Turn on the heat and the A/C and the lights and the stereo and run the electric windows up and down continuously and she'll still have double the 40 miles she needs. And by the time the Volt comes out :flypig: that pure EV should be available also.

FWIW, my Xebra now has a really powerful after-market heater. Turning it on high barely makes the ammeter budge. Maybe 1/20 the current of a 35-mph steady-speed run on level ground. So at most, it would take 5% off my range if run continuously, and it would have to be very cold out to be able to do that. At 30 degrees F. I run it for 3 or 4 minutes, then turn it to low, and then run it intermittently on low, because even that (half the current of high!) would be too much to run continuously. So the heater does not take as much energy as you might think. And this is a car that is far from airtight.

 

American housewives can't drive those big SUVs. And they can't park them either. But they sure love to yap on their cell phones while driving dangerously through school zones. I see them EVERY FREAKING MORNING.

Puh-leeeze. Enough insanity (or stupidity) already!

 

This Forbes article was quite informatve.

I noticed Johnsons Controls/Saft in the row of Toyota.
Do you think Toyota works with the French for a Prius PHEV battery?
I thought they exclusively work with their Japanese partner, Panasonic EV.