Toyota still apprehensive about lithium ion in spite of PHEV plans
Last Sunday night, Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe announced that the company would offer lithium ion equipped plug-in hybrids to fleet customers in two years. Toyota and Panasonic are also doing feasibility studies for an automotive lithium battery production line at their joint venture battery plant. But that should not be interpreted to mean that Toyota feels the technology is ready for prime time yet. Watanabe made it very clear that the PHEV fleet would comprise only a few hundred vehicles for a field test and would not be offered to the public. The company wants to evaluate how the batteries perform in the real world, but still keep them relatively under control until they achieve a certain degree of confidence.
Over on the Toyota Open Road blog, VP Communications Irv Miller responds today to some of the reactions to Watanabe-san's announcements. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member Jon Wellinghof responded that he hoped the Toyota PHEV fleet leads the way on Vehicle-to-Grid technology. While I have been at odds with some of Miller's comments in the past I do believe he is on the money this time. V2G is certainly a promising concept for buffering and stabilizing the electrical grid. To have any real impact, however, it needs wide-spread implementation and upgrades to the infrastructure to support stepping up the current for transmission. Miller also makes a good point about customers potentially being reluctant to give up their electric range if gas prices rise significantly. Toyota may have gone down the wrong path with lithium battery chemistry, but they seem to be intent on catching up. PHEVs are coming but there is still plenty for car-makers to learn about managing batteries to make them robust enough to last the life of the vehicle.
[Source: Toyota Open Road Blog]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tim King 11:15AM (1/30/2008)
From an electric utility perspective, a principal concern with PHEV/EV deployment is ensuring that the charge cycle is off-peak. In the desert southwest, the summer peak coincides with when people would be coming home and plugging in their vehicles. A 'worst-case' scenario.
One solution would be for PHEV/EV OEMs to build-in a customer programmable on-board charge cycle management capability that ensures the vehicle recharges in the early am as a default mode.
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Taser 9:03AM (1/17/2008)
To summarize, Toyota will not have a PHEV for public consumption until well after 2010. It appears to be far behind curve regarding the reported battery technology that other manufacturers have.
This is entirely in line with Toyota's incremental improvement corporate culture.
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emac1 3:47PM (1/17/2008)
Toyota is a bit TOO cautious. They're overdoing it. They want to be able to cash in as much as possible on the current hybrids. They know that no production car will challenge them seriously, Tesla, Renault, or GM until 2010. If they can get fleet results in by 2010 or 2011 then they can just amp up the production IF competition appears. That's what it sounds like to me. EDrive, Hymotion, and other hot fix kits for the prius has proven that it's reliable.
They don't contradict themselves as much as GM but they're still in the oil game.
Businesses aren't great when there are bigger markets that you can tap into but refuse to do so because they don't NEED to simply because they're making money as it is. An Oligopoly.
We all know the EVs or PHEV are possible today.
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mike 8:03PM (1/17/2008)
- What about capacitors?
- What about this 10x improvement in battery life?
http://www.news.com/A-tenfold-improvement-in-battery-life/2100-1041_3-6226196.html
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Dad 10:20PM (1/17/2008)
"PHEVs are coming but there is still plenty for car-makers to learn about managing batteries to make them robust enough to last the life of the vehicle."
And what is the life of a car? 8 years?
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Sam Abuelsamid 7:05AM (1/18/2008)
Actually as of 2005 the median age of the car fleet in the US is nine years meaning that half the cars are older than that. The vast majority of people rely on being able to buy used cars for personal transportation. If batteries only last a few years, used cars would become unaffordable, forcing people to keep even older cars running, negating the benefits of electric and hybrid vehicles.
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