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Toyota unveils ion-battery plug-in car

Toyota Motor Corp president Katsuaki Watanabe reaches for the Plug-in HV during a Toyota Environment Forum, which seeks to explain the company’s efforts to address environmental issues, in Tokyo, Japan, yesterday. PHOTO: EPA

Toyota is introducing a plug-in hybrid with next-generation lithium-ion batteries in Japan, the US and Europe by 2010, under a widespread environmental strategy outlined yesterday.

The ecological gas-electric vehicles, which can be recharged from a home electrical outlet, will target leasing customers, Toyota Motor Corp said.

Such plug-in hybrids can run longer as an electric vehicle than regular hybrids and are substantially cleaner.

Lithium-ion batteries, now common in laptops, produce more power and are smaller than nickel-metal hydride batteries used in hybrids now.

The joint venture that Toyota set up with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, which manufactures Panasonic products, will begin producing lithium-ion batteries next year and move into full-scale production in 2010, Toyota said.

Toyota also said it would be setting up a battery research department later this month to develop an innovative battery that can outperform even that lithium-ion battery.

Japan’s top automaker, which leads the industry in gas-electric hybrids, has said it will rev up hybrid sales to 1 million a year sometime after 2010.

Hybrid vehicles reduce the pollution and emissions that are linked to global warming by switching between a gas engine and an electric motor to deliver better mileage than comparable standard cars.

Their popularity has been growing amid soaring oil prices and worries about global warming.

“Without focusing on measures to address global warming and energy issues, there can be no future for our auto business,” Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe told reporters at a Tokyo hall yesterday.

He said that developing breakthrough technology would be critical to allow Toyota and other automakers to continue to grow while avoiding damage to the environment.

The Prius, which has been on sale for more than a decade, recently reached cumulative sales of 1 million vehicles.

When including other Toyota hybrids, the company said it sold 1.5 million hybrids so far around the world.

Toyota said that it is also working on the development of fuel-cell vehicles, which produce no pollution by running on the energy produced when hydrogen combines with oxygen in the air to produce water.

It is also improving mileage of all its models, including gasoline engine and clean diesel vehicles, it said.

It plans to set up more environmentally friendly factories that will produce fewer carbon gas emissions and develop production techniques that require less energy, using solar energy and planting trees, Watanabe said.

On Tuesday, Toyota said it would start making the Camry hybrid in Australia and Thailand as part of its efforts to step up production of “green” cars around the world.

The two plants were only Toyota’s second and third overseas production point for the Camry hybrid after its Kentucky plant in the US.

Aside from Japan, the only other country where Toyota manufactures its hybrids is China.

Toyota, close to overtaking General Motors Corp of the US as the world’s No. 1 automaker, faces competition from rivals, which are also all working on ecological technology.

For 2010, General Motors is planning a Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric vehicle, while Nissan Motor Co is planning electric vehicles for the US and Japan.

Honda Motor Co is also developing new hybrid models, targeting sales of 500,000 hybrids a year sometime after 2010.
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