Does Toyota's plug-in hybrid prototype matter?
A plug-in hybrid from HymotionWhen I was at the LA Auto Show, there was a protest across the street demanding that automakers start making plug-in hybrid vehicles. While much focus has been placed on lithium batteries for plug-in hybrids, demonstrators converted a NiMH powered Toyota Prius into a plug-in NiMH powered Prius - as proof that today's batteries were ready for plug-in technology.
But really, is there a point to such a conversion? Thus, is there a point to Toyota's current PHEVs that utilize NiMH battery backs?
Without lithium, what advantage does plug-in technology offer? Wouldn't capacitor-powered hybrids, for example, be a better focus for achieving increased fuel economy and reduced emissions?
Have battery powered vehicles been over-hyped? Is America's cure to energy independence and global warming really an out-of-date, coal-powered energy grid?
Labels: plug-in hybrid vehicles, toyota prius
posted by Dahcredyns at
9:16 AM
2 Comments:
Wow, you must be kidding. Ever heard of the Toyota RAV4 EV? Gets pretty good use out of the NiMH battery pack in its bowels. I would buy TWO Toyota Prius plug in hybrids TODAY if they would make them.
A 10 kWh battery pack in a Toyota Prius gives me a 100 mpg vehicle which is three times better than any vehicle in my garage today. So yes, this is a VERY worthwhile endeavor that could wean America off foreign oil forever......
I would also buy a plug-in Prius if they made it today, but a lithium-powered Prius, not a NiHM powered Prius.
The NiHM based Toyota Prius plug-in that Toyota is developing achieves only a marginal increase in fuel economy, it is FAR from a 100 mpg plug-in hybrid. It also requires extra batteries, electronics and software that almost assuredly wipe out any advantages in cost-effectiveness. Thus, Toyota has little interest in selling such a vehicle, and is almost certainly only testing such a vehicle because of public pressure and the hype of the Chevy Volt. It's just PR.
Also, Honda, for example, thinks plug-in hybrids make no sense. Same for Nissan, Volkswagen, and BMW.
According to the fine folks at Hybrids-Plus.com, in order to achieve a 100 mpg Prius with lithium, your talking more than $25,000 worth of lithium batteries - and that doesn't include the cost of integration.
Yes, I know that Hymotion and A123Systems say its only $10-12,000, but if that's true, why don't they sell the battery packs to Hybrids-Plus for that cost? Games are being played because A123 is just using Hymotion to gain favor with the likes of GM and the Chevy Volt battery contract.
Plug-in hybrids are still very expensive. That's a fact that cannot be denied. Yes, economies of scale might bring the cost down, and I believe that lithium hybrids should be developed.
Still, capacitor powered hybrids could prove better than plug-in hybrids when costs, fuel economy, emissions, etc. are considered.
Nonetheless, today's Prius is already too expensive for a significant percent of American drivers. Add $10,000 to the cost after incentives, economies of scale, etc. and a plug-in Prius is still to expensive for a significant percent of Americans.
Additionally, there are still unresolved questions regarding electric vehicles and the electric grid.
I enjoy at least one rolling blackout every year in California. In the Northeast, a squirrel can knock out the power grid. America's power grid is entirely outdated and very susceptible to outages.
In the end there are still serious questions to the plug-in hybrid revolution that I have been advocating now for years.
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