Will it also fun on gas? Gas is passe.

Go back to NiMH? I thought they were still NiMH... Whatever. It's great news that this is finally happening. Does anyone know how many kg of NiMH batteries would be needed for a decent PHEV?

Many of us have waited for Toyota to announce this move; however, because the test mule uses a LiIon battery and Toyota is on record delaying the implementation of LiIon, I suspect it will a while before we see them on our roads.

The good news is they have a PHEV working on the road and that's very encouraging. Maybe I won't need to drive my old Volvo all that much longer since I decided to wait for BEVs. If it's a good car with a good electrical range, I might decide to buy the PHEV and not wait.

Toyota needs to convert all of their SUV's and MiniVans to PHEV and Diesel technology. What a winner. 30% greater fuel efficiency with the Diesel engine plus more efficient LI-Ion batterys carrying 10x the power that the old fashioned NiMetal Hydride batteries carry. We can convert in 5 years to a low carbon footprint society if Toyota will have the moral courage to lead the way now. Why wait will the 2009 model year. The time to change is now.

Yes! Today is a good day. I like Toyota, like the plug-in, I even like that little graphic that goes with the story. Let's hope some more automakers make surprises just like this pretty soon. Oh, and that one can plug in the new Supra, too!

Ok GM and Ford, the race is on. Are you fossils or evolutionary winners? The Germans seem to have wandered off down a diesel dead end. Where are Nissan and Mazda anyway? They seem to have disappeared. Will somebody please wake up Chrysler!

I read the Japanese article mentioned above and my interpretation is slightly different.

The Ministry of Land and Transport permission is a formality. It just means registration of a type of vehicle that is not currently resistered for use. Toyota will have no problems there.

Leasing to government offices in Aichi Prefecture (where Toyota HQ is based) is to gather performance data and check safety of the vehicle as a first step towards becoming the first commercial PHEV producer in the world.

The article also quoted the President of Toyota (Mr Katsuaki Watanabe)saying that among the many low pollution engine developments, such as clean diesel etc, the Hybrid is Toyota's core technology. Their strategy is to maintain Toyota's leading position in Hybrid technology with the PHEV which has an even lower environmental impact than existing hybrids.

Sounds to me like they will be giving it a serious push.

This may kill the Volt project before it gets started. If Toyota is good, there will be an all electric range of 40 or so miles as well.

Will the 2009 third generation Prius III have a PHEV option?

If so, will this first generation Toyota PHEV use NiMH or Li-Ion batteries?

Will the energy storage unit (s) have various options, i.e. size + technology?

Will super-caps (+ AWD) be offered to recuperate more decelleration energy and increase the electric ONLY range, specially in city driving.

There is so much room for improvement with PHEVs that it may take a few years before all the possible options become available.

Fortunately, Toyota is there to make it happen. I hope to buy a Toyota first generation PHEV in late 2009.

If Toyota still has questions about Li-ion why don't they just use a bigger NIMH? The way I see it a 5 seat Prius is overkill. They could offer a 4 seat version with the centre rear seat replaced by a battery box + work/coffee table. NiMH isn't a toxic battery tech so there's no fear of putting it in with the passengers, is it?

The main dilemma is to use safer lower energy density NiMH or more dangerous higher density LiIon. The various LiIon battery recalls and fires that were taking place on notebook computers are making car makers such as Toyota leery of LiIon.

Prius problem is that the current NiMH is too small for PHEV. You can charge it but you cannot store much energy. Thus they would have to make it bigger, add more cells, to be able to charge any sort of non-trivial amount of electricity. The additional space required would significantly reduce interior/cargo space. You don't loose the 5th seat only, but also a good chunk of cargo space as well.

Today Prius is marketed as a mainstream family car with a comprable space as conventional cars. Once you enlarge the NiMH battery pack that is no longer possible. Their marketing strategy changes and they risk loosing sales.

Therefore change to LiIon is inevitable. Except Toyota doesn't want to be the 1st one to do it. Heck none of them want to be the 1st one. They are all afreaid of big dires/explosion, even possible deaths and lawsuits.

LiIon is known for a limited current draw range (NiMH is much more tolerant of very high current draw - they may fail but not blow up). LiIon makers claim that they have solved that problem and now offer high current draw versions. However car makers are still afraid.

So it all comes down to how good the latest LiIon battery for high current draw are. Toyota doesn't want to do it, but risks loosing the Prius brand lead. GM Volt could quickly take the hybrid crown from Toyota if they are successful.

So here we are. GM is pushing forward full spead ahead with LiIon because they have nothing to loose. Toyota has the lead so they have a lot to loose. Thus they are making a reluctant modifications to Prius to satisfy clients while keeping most of the original design intact.

I predict that the new Prius will STILL have a limited electricity capacity and will have a POOR pure electric range. Meanwhile GM Volt and whatever Ford comes up with will have a longer pure electric range, but of course will be brand new designs with the usual reliability ant other issues.

Bottom line is it will take a long time. I am sure gasoline prices will double by the time we have a decent range PHEV with a decent reliability/operability.

I pretty much agree with what Ed is saying here. I already own an 06 Prius and it is a great car to drive. When it came time to replace my old 240D that ran on B100 the Prius was an easy choice to make. The low emissions and high mileage were 2 big reasons for this choice.

After driving the Prius for a few months I built an Electric motorcycle. See www.zevutah.com for details.

My latest project has been to add solar panels to the workshop roof, so that I can charge the bike with clean electricity. That is now project is now working great.

My wifes car is a 10 year old Subaru with 120k miles on it. The replacement for that car will be either a PHEV or a BEV like the Chevy Volt.

Hey Toyota and Chevy are you listening ?????

I do believe this is good news, but until Toyota develops a series hybrid I still wouldn't be interested. Too much complexity in a parallel system.