OK Toyota. Finally, the plug in Prius!

This is the next step towards a green sustainable future.

I like the idea of placing these recharge stations at what seems to be the same place as a regular parking meter would go -along urban roadways and parking lots- should work into a regular person's lifestyle a lot more seamlessly than expecting people to line-up and wait at a recharging 'bar/station' for who knows how long (5 - 30 mins?). At the same time as a person is stopping to do an errand they can fully -or just partly- top up the battery - and off they go.
I wonder about the security, useability, and safety of leaving - what? a 240V outlet - at several locations in 24hr/7day public view. You run one of those over or it gets snowed under by a plow - with wet conductive surfaces- and you have some serious current flowing (a gfi could handle this?) - of course light standards get knocked over constantly....

“The tests also aim at understanding consumers’ acceptance of the new technology …”

Consumer acceptance is one reason why BEV are MIA and PHEV are DOA in the US.

This is hard for some here to accept. For example, E-P is strongly in favor EVs but there will never be an EV that he will accept as a consumer. Everyone loves convertibles, but very few are actually bought.

“Early test results indicate that fuel efficiency of the Prius PHEV prototype is significantly higher than current Prius.”

Note the careful choice of words. EDF did not say energy efficient. EDF runs more nuclear power plants than any other company in the world. EDF’s nukes and many in the EU load follow. If properly managed by EDF, PHEV would be powered by excess nuke capacity could be used to ‘fuel’ PHEV.

"Consumer acceptance is one reason why BEV are MIA and PHEV are DOA in the US."

Americans [like most people in the world] are sheep [sheeple]. If the PTB had just put in as much effort selling this idea as they did the war in Iraq there wouldn't be a problem.

If the BEV people could only give the mAD men of Madison Ave the kind of money JR Reynolds do.

If you could sell a Prius PHEV with 20+mi range on electricity for $20-25k, it would sell very briskly.

You need 100mi+ range, probably 120-150mi range for a pure EV at the same price point to sell significant numbers of them.

For both, battery cost remains an issue since for the PHEV scenario you need a battery 10x+ bigger than the current battery in the Prius and for the EV scenario you need a battery 60-100x+ bigger.

For a small EV or mid-size PHEVs battery technology is close - HyMotion is able to sell a Prius PHEV kit for $10k with a 5kWh pack which gives you 30-40 miles of 100+mpg driving (probably roughly equivalent to 15-20 miles of pure EV range).

Toyota could probably integrate similar functionality into the car for about half that cost, but the only way you're going to get one somewhat reasonably priced today is to buy a high mileage Prius for about $15k and then add on the Hymotion kit for another $10k.

Let me show you how to construct a sentence without using the word ‘if’.

You may wish to start off by constructing a grammatically correct sentence, which would be in stark contrast to your last post above.

If you want onstreet charging, just make it pre-pay.

You put in 1 or 2 euro coins and get your juice.

The car can be programmed to tell you how much it can take, and if you overpay, it just stops charging.

This avoids the needs for links between the car and charging stations - keep it as simple as possible.

KitP - "I can buy a new Corolla for $15k that meets economically meets the needs of my family."

Yes you can and it is economic only because petrol is cheap. Successive US administrations have made it their core business to keep petrol cheap and this is why your Corolla is economic.

If you paid the true cost of keeping the petrol cheap and the environmental cost of petrol then it would be much much more expensive.

All of this may not be true in the future as the US efforts to keep petrol cheap over the last few years have cost perhaps more that the US has. Please do not insult us with pretentions of dictator removal as if this was the core objective of American foreign policy they would be working to a list that does not include oil reserves as a prerequisite - I mean how many people are hankering to invade Zimbabwe and remove the murderous dictator there?

PHEVS and EVs are in investment in the future where the US Army may not always be counted on to get cheap oil. The good thing is that you do not have to kill people to get the wind and the sun as it is freely shining on your country as it is mine.

@Ender

My Corolla is economical because it it does not cost very much, it has low maintenance cost, gets good mileage, and we do not drive a lot. All of these are a result of careful decision making. I would not expect ender to understand barbecue he is not very smart. I say that because he thinks EVs and PHEV are not an investment.

Ender is not very smart because he want to interject politics into a technical discussion. So ender tell me where you are from? I will be happy to correct any misconceptions you have about the US and your country.

KitP - "Ender is not very smart because he want to interject politics into a technical discussion."

What are you upset because I did it before you could? It is only mentioned because for some reason oil and politics are inextracably bound up in the US as coal is here in Australia. You currently have virtually the ex-board members and ex-CEOs of most major oil companies for your executive leadership - what would you expect them to concentrate on?

I have a small 4 cylinder car for exactly the same reasons as you however it remains economic only because petrol, though more expensive here, is still cheap and is only a small part of my household budget. This would not be the case if it was $10.00/litre instead of about $AUD1.60 per liter. My country, because we had a lap-dog for a Prime Minister then, went to war with you yes thats true however I did not approve of it then. Australia's current accounts just blew out because of, guess what, increased oil imports. Unless we do something soon we will go down the toilet faster than you.

PHEVS and EVs are in investment for a time when oil supplies are low and prices are high are IC cars are no longer economical no matter how small they are.

@Ender. Well said, I strongly agree with your sentiment.

To anyone who thinks there is a "silver bullet" technical solution to peak oil and GW issues. Please take a 5 min time out.

The optimum "energy efficient" transportation mode depends on so many different factors. The solution will be different for different folks. We are not all going to walk and take buses. Neither will everyone want to drive an EV Hummer.

Here are a few variables: Range requirement, carrying capacity, duty cycle, social needs, availability of public transport, personal wealth, perceived social status, prefferred living standard, etc etc.

I live in a small crowded city. A mid size 80-120 mile range EV is ideal for me. It's what I want. I don't want to mess around with a complex PHEV and I don't much like to ride on buses. I'm happy to take my chances with the whatever batteries and charging infrastructure is available. I think there's a pretty big market for this particular solution.

If I move to Darkest Peru with no electricity I'll want a small off road diesel.

Hey Kit,

I'll have to make one myself, so that will take a while. Don't worry, there are plenty of personal accounts about EV ownership. You can read up.

Disclaimer: Any opinions expressed therin are forward looking statements. They may or may not be based on actual fact. This is not be construed as investment advice.

Personal accounts about EV are mostly fairy tales. Good luck with your project Andrew.