Toyota to start leasing 150 of its Prius plug-in hybrids in the US

Toyota Motor Corp. aims to further its lead away from General Motors Co. and Nissan Motor Co. in the field of rechargeable cars by starting to sell “affordable” plug-in hybrid cars in 2011.

Toyota added an external charging function and more batteries to the Prius Plug-In Hybrid (PHV), its first plug-in model, to enable longer-distance driving on electricity alone.. Many consider “range anxiety” as a main shortcoming of battery-powered full-electric cars but the plug-in hybrids, which also run on gasoline, have eliminated that problem.
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thstone - 12/15/2009 4:28:24 PM

+1 Boost

As long as Toyota remains married to NiMH batteries they will be playing catchup to everyone else with Li-Ion.

XYZZ - 12/16/2009 2:16:07 AM

0 Boost

who said they were married to 'em?

they just want to ENSURE Li-ion is 100% reliable before using them large scale.

it's one thing if a gm (or Ford) car bursts into flames and burns up. this has happened numerous times and NO ONE will be overly surprised.

toyota has NEVER had any such incidents, and will never risk it happening on their products.

XYZZ - 12/17/2009 6:06:16 AM

+1 Boost

the ONLY problem with the floor mat design, is that it was not made sufficiently IDIOT PROOF.

and apparently, there were a few hundred IDIOTS who ALSO did not know how to shift to N when the car goes faster than they want. yet toyota is so concerned, that to forestall the NEXT few fools screwing up, they voluntarily recalled 4 million cars to adjust the gas pedal.

most non-idiotic toyota owners will likely just IGNORE this recall.

Joe_Limon - 12/17/2009 1:39:35 AM

+1 Boost

At least with power generation plants they can operate the engines at higher efficiency levels to make up for the inefficiencies in charging batteries. Coal power plants still get more power per gram of emission then even the Prius does.