Toyota to Start Trials of Plug-in Prius in China
25 April 2010
Nikkei. Toyota wants to begin trials of its plug-in hybrid vehicles in China as soon as possible, according to Takeshi Uchiyamada, a Toyota executive vice president, speaking at a press conference at Auto China 2010 in Beijing.
The Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid is making its China debut at Auto China 2010. Toyota is also showing the FT-CH compact hybrid (Asia debut), the FT-EV II electric vehicle with newly developed motor and lithium-ion battery (China debut), and the FT-86 rear-wheel-drive compact sports car (China debut).
The Japanese car maker sold 709,000 vehicles in 2009 in China, up 21%. For 2010, it is targeting a 13% growth in sales to 800,000 vehicles despite its recent recalls. Sales in the first two months of this year grew 43% on year to 117,000 vehicles.
In January, the auto maker issued a recall notice for 75,552 RAV4 sport-utility vehicles in China due to faulty gas pedals.
With the current record market growth in China, it is not surprising that most car manufacturers will try to get a piece of that market. China is taking active efforts to electrify their vehicle fleet. As China wants their local manufacturers to be partners, many JVs with known world class manufacturers will come in the very near future.
Worldwide competition will be fierce and interesting and will offer buyers affordable e-vehicles by 2015.
Posted by: HarveyD | 25 April 2010 at 09:03 AM
You save more oil by having the battery capacity split across as many cars as possible, so using a smaller battery pack is actually not as bad an idea as it might first sound. It also keeps the purchase price lower
Posted by: 3PeaceSweet | 25 April 2010 at 02:53 PM
3peace, I absolutely agree with you.
4x 10 mile PHEVs are better than 2x 20 mile and much better than 1x 40 mile PHEV.
The absolute electric mileage is not the thing, it is the gallons of fuel used per year. This will vary by person, of course, but if you could electrify 5-10 miles of urban traffic per car per day, it would make a difference.
If someone has a very long commute, it won't help much (get a diesel), but many people have short commutes, and if you could put the busiest parts of those on electric drive, it would save a lot of fuel.
You do not need a 40 mile PHEV to have a useful vehicle: anything from (probably) 5 mile range is worth the effort.
Posted by: mahonj | 26 April 2010 at 07:13 AM
It'll be interesting to see what happens to EV "mileage" in heavy traffic like So Cal's 405 freeway. Will the start and stop crawl drain the battery faster than light traffic patterns? If so, low mileage EVs in dense traffic markets will not be viable.
However, since efficiency is far greater in an EV - they will still benefit owners above ICE.
Posted by: sulleny | 26 April 2010 at 11:03 AM