July 26th, 2007
University of California Campuses to Test Toyota Plug-In Hybrid
By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
As I reported just yesterday, Toyota is starting road tests of it’s plug-in hybrid prototypes. What I didn’t know then, and know now, is that two UC California campuses will get to test them as well.
Toyota announced yesterday that it has developed a plug-in hybrid vehicle and become the first manufacturer to have such a vehicle certified for use on public roads in Japan. Toyota will also provide plug-in (PHEV) hybrid prototypes to the Advanced Power and Energy Program at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Source: Auto Industry
We Say: Each campus will only get one … and they’ll look like standard Priuses. Still, maybe I’ll get lucky and see one tooling around SF Bay Area freeways, since I live in the Bay Area.
John W says:
While they’re nifty and all, I’d hope that people remember that any electric car or hybrid is just a deferred-polluter. Rather than distributing the fumes around all communities the (oil/coal/gas) it takes to generate that power is just burned in poor neighborhoods instead.
July 26th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Jose Torre-Bueno says:
Actually the issue of pollution from the generation of electricity to power plug in hybrids has been well studied. Net pollution is substantially reduced because the hybrid is more efficient. Even if all the electricity comes from coal the CO2 production is reduced by half. Further as the grid becomes cleaner by the use of solar and wind the car shares the improvements.
July 26th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Kent Beuchert says:
The Toyota “testing” is mostly PR - the car they’re providing is not much like the one thaty will eventually sell, making their claim to be “testting
the oplug-in concept” totally absurd. GM didn’t need to publically “test” their VOLT plug-in before designing and building it. Any 7 year old knows how aplug-in works and
“testing” a car that won’t have 1/5th the mileage of the eventual car and requires only 1/5th as long to recharge is as stupid as it gets. Toyota is simply using these cars to announce to the media that they will have a cobbled up version of the Prius available in plug-in mode. The Prius was NOT designed to be a plug-in and is far too complicated a design.The serial hybrid of the VOLT will become the obvious standard plug-in architecture for those automakers who are
really serious about producing a serious product.
July 27th, 2007 at 7:45 am
JJ says:
Serial hybrid is great but when GM can put it in the hand of consumers…no not even that…if they can “PR” the volt as you put it and hand it to UC for testing, I will eat every byte of what I am writing.
Most of you skeptics simply dont get it. Yes, the solution is only a mediocre improvement but for some folks with shorter commute that mediocre improvement can easily improve efficiency anywhere from 50% to 100%!
I do own a Toyota hybrid and those short trips is a major killer on my overall mpg. If toyota would retrofit my hybrid and back it up with a warranty, I would do it without any hesitation!!!
Check out this clip from GM and listen carefully about their explanation of why it cant be released until 2010. Ony one thing is holding it back http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-07-26-voa25.cfm
In case you can’t get at that clip, the volt relies on LiIon battery but there are many unresolved issues to make that a viable option for consumers. What toyota is doing may a PR to some, but if they can manufacture a plugin car and back it with 10yr/150K warranty before GM can release the volt, only an idiot would keep on hanging to the idea that GM will deliver.
Here’s another thing to chew on: If GM can solve the LiIon, dont you think Toyota would too. By 2010, Toyota would be so ahead in the hybrid market that their parallel hybrid plugin technology would be competitive with a conventional ICE.
Having a better technology can put you ahead, but if you can’t beat the economics of the average household, what good is it. Dont get me wrong. I am not againts GM. If volt can be competitively priced with a toyota phev, I would trade in my hybrid in a heartbeat. Hmm, volt is a $5million car now…what do you think it would be by 2010?…Hmm.
August 2nd, 2007 at 4:30 pm
John says:
Yawn, diesel is the way to go. No batteries and no waiting and better fuel economy.
August 3rd, 2007 at 3:03 pm
JJ says:
For the interim, diesel maybe the answer if you only care about mpg. Diesel hybrid is better for the world. Electric via renewables sources is the cleanest.
August 4th, 2007 at 3:20 am