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Toyota to sell 'affordable' plug-in hybrids in '11

Company's first plug-in model, the Prius PHV, will add an external charging function and more batteries to enable longer-distance driving on electricity alone.

Reuters
2 min read

Toyota Motor will begin selling "affordable" plug-in hybrid cars in 2011, upping the ante on General Motors and Nissan Motor as they aim to take the lead in the field of rechargeable cars.

Toyota's first plug-in model, the Prius Plug-In Hybrid (PHV), will add an external charging function and more batteries to the popular Prius to enable longer-distance driving on electricity alone.

Because it can also run on gasoline, plug-in hybrids--such as GM's upcoming Volt due for sale next year--eliminate the "range anxiety" seen as one of the main shortcomings of battery-powered pure electric cars.

The Prius PHV can travel 14.5 miles using only the electric motor, making a short commute possible on zero emissions, Toyota said. On a full charge and full tank of gas, the car could theoretically travel 870 miles, it said.

Prius Plug-In Hybrid concept car Toyota

Nissan's pure electric Leaf car due for sale in 2010 has a range of 100 miles on a single charge.

Toyota, the world's biggest automaker and by far the top seller of gasoline-electric hybrid cars, said it would aim to sell "several tens of thousands" of plug-in hybrid cars to the general public in an "affordable" price range.

Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota's R&D chief and father of the original Prius, declined to specify a price range but indicated it would likely be far cheaper than 3 million yen ($33,770).

"Nowadays in the United States, they sell after-market kits for about 1 million yen ($11,260)" to convert a hybrid car into a plug-in, he told a presentation on Monday. "Of course, we would have to do much better than that as a mass producer."

The third-generation Prius starts at $22,400 in the United States.

Uchiyamada said he expects the mass-produced plug-in cars--which may not take the shape of the Prius--to be sold globally.

GM's Chevrolet Volt, on track to become the first mass-market plug-in hybrid in the United States, could cost as much as $40,000 before a $7,500 consumer tax credit is applied, GM has said. The U.S. automaker expects to sell about 10,000 Volts in the first year of production and 60,000 in its second full year.

Toyota will begin leasing its Prius PHV globally this month, starting with 100 to the French city of Strasbourg. By mid-2010, it will have about 600 on lease, mostly to governments and businesses in Japan, the United States and Europe.

"The arrival of these new generation plug-in hybrid vehicles in our urban landscape will open a new chapter in our transport policy," Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries said at a hand-over ceremony in Tokyo.

Strasbourg has 300 recharging stations and has been a leader in efforts for sustainable mobility.