Lithium hybrids: Dangerous or expensive?
Is the race to the first plug-in hybrid just a PR exercise?When GM signed an agreement with A123Systems to develop lithium batteries for the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, Bob Lutz claimed the move gave GM the lead over Toyota to be the first to market with plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles.
While the GM faithful filled the blogosphere with their 'the Toyota Prius is dead rants', I could only be amused.
Hymotion, owned by A123Systems, has converted numerous Toyota Prius hybrids into plug-in hybrids that achieve more than 100 mpg. So, if GM's lithium battery partner can convert the Prius into a plug-in hybrid, why can't Toyota? Or, is something else going on?
Finish: Lithium hybrids: Dangerous or expensive
Labels: a123 systems, Chevy Volt electric vehicle concept, lithium battery, plug-in hybrid vehicles, toyota prius
posted by Dahcredyns at
2:48 PM
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When GM signed an agreement with A123Systems to develop lithium batteries for the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, Bob Lutz claimed the move gave GM the lead over Toyota to be the first to market with plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles.
While the GM faithful filled the blogosphere with their 'the Toyota Prius is dead rants', I could only be amused.
Hymotion, owned by A123Systems, has converted numerous Toyota Prius hybrids into plug-in hybrids that achieve more than 100 mpg. So, if GM's lithium battery partner can convert the Prius into a plug-in hybrid, why can't Toyota? Or, is something else going on?
And it isn't just A123Systems.
The folks over at HybridsPlus are also converting Prii into plug-in Prii, but with batteries from a different battery producer. Not only that, but Hybrids is using a much more sophisticated integration package than does Hymotion - creating a complete lithium hybrid, rather than a half NiMH, half lithium hybrid. The cost of these plug-in hybrids, however, is not cheap. In fact, achieving a 100 mpg plug-in hybrid can easily double the cost of a conventional Prius.
At HybridFest in Madison, WI I watched Hymotion convert a Prius into a plug-in Prius, after which I spoke to Davide Andrea, the CTO of HybridsPlus, about the differences between their conversions and the ones performed by Hymotion.
Aside from some technical differences, it was cost that far and away caught my attention.
Ultimately, Andrea and the team at Hybrids-Plus are absolutely convinced that A123Systems is subsidizing the cost of Hymotion's plug-in conversions, as a positioning tactic. Consequently, the real world cost of a Hymotion plug-in conversion just hasn't been made public.
And plug-in costs are a big concern.
GM is already considering a separate lease for the lithium battery pack on the Volt. That, obviously, might be O.K. for some early adopters, but it is far from a mainstream option.
Thus, I can only wonder if Toyota isn't gung-ho regarding plug-in hybrids simply because they are not going to be cheap in the short term. Furthermore, since the current Prius is becoming one of the hottest selling cars in America, why would Toyota want to switch to a more expensive option? A more expensive hybrid - even a plug-in hybrid - isn't going to help Toyota sell a 1,000,000 hybrids per year by early next decade.
A smaller Prius that achieves 60 mpg+ in the real world, priced a few thousand under a conventional Prius, however, might just be a bigger seller than the Prius itself, and it will definitely sell better than a $50,000 plug-in Prius, even if it does achieve 100 mpg.
In the end, GM probably has more to gain and nothing to lose by striving to beat Toyota to plug-ins, but until an automaker can sell at least 50,000 - 100,000 plug-in hybrids per year, no one really has an advantage in this PR war.
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