Toyota is to start sales of Plug-In Hybrids in 2011
Toyota has revealed it will begin to sell Plug-In Hybrid cars in 2011, although not necessarily the Prius Plug-In.
Back in September Toyota released details of the Plug-In Prius which – as you would have guessed from the name – adds a plug-in facility to the Prius to allow owners to charge the Prius’ batteries from a domestic outlet.
The benefit of adding a plug-in facility is to give the Prius some of the benefits of a pure electric car but without the ‘Range Anxiety’ that plagues proper-sized, non-City electric cars. By adding the plug-in facility and swapping the existing nickel-metal hydride battery pack for a bigger and more powerful set of lithium ion batteries, Toyota has extended the pure electric range to a maximum of 14.5 miles, enough for a short daily commute on electric-only power.
At the time it seemed that there were no plans to offer the Plug-In Prius for sale. The plan was to lease to businesses and Governments, a scheme which kicks off this month in Strasbourg with 100 Prius Plug-Ins being leased by the local Government. By next year Toyota will have leased out around 600 plug-ins in Europe, the US and Japan.
This morning, Toyota’s R & D boss Takeshi Uchiyamada has said that Toyota are now planning on having plug-in hybrids on sales by 2011, although not necessarily the Prius. He said that Toyota expected to sell ‘many 10s of thousands’ of the plug-ins and that the price point would be in the region of 50% more than the current Prius, putting the plug-in well over £20,000.
Not sure that will make a plug-in Toyota the most cost-effective way to commute, but there are bound to be a bunch of ‘Eco-Commuters’ queueing up to be the first.
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