Toyota doesn’t expect plug-in hybrid cars to be a huge success until battery performance doubles. The Japanese auto maker doesn’t even see a significant market that would purchase a plug-in hybrid as of yet.
Plug-in hybrids will take off “when we have better batteries,” Yoshitaka Asakura, a manager in Toyota’s hybrid vehicle system engineering division told Automotive News. When batteries offer “two times the energy storage capacity in the same space, then we can see plug-in hybrids,” he says.
If the current Prius were to become a plug-in hybrid that could go at least 37 miles on battery power alone, it would require 12...
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