29/03/2010 – Plug-in Toyota Prius
Last week I attended a conference, sponsored by TOYOTA, on plug-in hybrid vehicles… or should I say the Toyota Plug-in Hybrid Prius. Apart from TOYOTA personnel, there were other company representatives making the event more interesting, like ENDESA and ACS. The first thing that stroke me, and stroke the majority of the audience, was that TOYOTA announced that the Toyota Plug-in Hybrid Prius will only be available in 2013 (without specifying which month!). In fact this is disappointing. I thought that TOYOTA had only to adjust things here and there to come up with a Plug-in version of their 3rd generation Hybrid Prius, already on the road!
Everybody would assume that the Plug-in Hybrid Prius would have been a simple re-design of the controller of the generator and battery and that the car would have been available in 2011 or even at the end of 2010, like many websites are still announcing! But TOYOTA explained at the conference that the Plug-in Prius is quite different than the actual Hybrid Prius. The battery update corresponds to the main update, going from a NiMH battery pack (today’s 3rd generation Hybrid Prius) to a Li-on battery pack for the new Plug-in Hybrid Prius. The 2 cars share the same hybrid concept, but the Plug-in Hybrid model adds the capability of charging the battery from an electric plug (220V AC is sufficient!). Other than this feature, today’s Prius and the new Plug-in Hybrid, are both “natural hybrids” meaning that their main source of power comes from a gasoline engine and they both use the battery to store “dead” energy, like the one produced during braking. The Plug-in Hybrid adds though more “electric” range, mainly due to the li-on batteries being bigger, and of course, with bigger energy storage capacity.
All-in-all, I think hybrids are very interesting options for today’s road towards electric-only vehicles. Indeed, with hybrids, you don’t have to worry about charging poles when you are out of your “electric-charging-comfort zone”, making this type of vehicle quite versatile, if we compare it to today’s (or should I say 2013′s) electric cars.
Good design choice, and nice looking car too. Too bad we have to wait another 3 years! Will other electric-only cars be massively available in 2013 making the Plug-in Hybrid concept dead before it is born? We will see…
