Toyota plans 2 new hybrids, lithium ion production

[DainBramaged]

Toyota Motor Corp. today fired a fresh volley in the green car wars, promising two new hybrid vehicles and the start of lithium ion battery production next year.

The two hybrids -- one badged a Toyota, the other a Lexus -- will debut at the Detroit auto show and come on top of the third-generation Prius car, also due in 2009.

Toyota didn't give further details about the upcoming vehicles. But Masatami Takimoto, executive vice president in charge of r&d, said the Toyota will be larger than the Prius.

"It's a totally new car," Takimoto said here.

For the redesigned Prius, Toyota will stick with the current generation's nickel-metal hydride batteries. The long-awaited lithium ion batteries, light in weight and high in power, will debut in Toyota's first plug-in hybrid, due in 2010, he said.

More batteries

Panasonic EV Energy Co., the joint venture that makes Toyota's hybrid vehicle batteries, will start making the lithium ion batteries in 2009, Takimoto said. Panasonic EV is building the production line at its main plant in Shizuoka, southwest of Tokyo.

Initial output will test quality consistency. Mass production will begin in 2010.

Toyota outlined the plans as part of a sweeping environmental blueprint that touched on sustainable r&d, manufacturing and social responsibility.

The move comes as rivals Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. beef up their own green car programs. Honda announced last month that it will launch four hybrid vehicles by 2015.

That same week, Nissan said it will start mass-producing lithium ion batteries next year.

Lithium ion batteries are seen as a key to jump-starting the market for low-emissions gasoline-electric hybrid and pure electric vehicles. They are lighter and more powerful than the nickel-metal hydride batteries now used in hybrids.

Beyond lithium

Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe said he already is thinking beyond lithium.

To that end, the automaker is setting up a battery research department this month to develop a post-lithium ion battery with even better performance, he said.

Takimoto said the department will start with 50 people and double the staffing in two years. Possible chemistries for the new batteries include metal-air batteries, he said.

Toyota is racing to crank up battery production so it can meet its goal of selling 1 million hybrid vehicles a year in the early 2010s. A shortage of batteries is one reason Toyota hasn't been able to boost production of the Prius to meet booming global demand.

Among Toyota's other green initiatives:

• New 1.3-liter and 2.5-liter gasoline engines featuring stop-start technology, due this year

• A new highly efficient compact six-speed manual transmission, arriving in the fall

• Cutting carbon dioxide emissions from factories to 35 percent of 2001 levels by 2010.

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http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080611/ANA02/543859871/1115

[Eurobabe]

1. hurry up dammit! and get some to Europe!

I can't believe the dearth of hybrids here. It's appalling.

[DainBramaged]

2. Well, Toyota is building Camry hybrids in Thailand and Australia now

[DemoTex]

3. My Toyota sales-manager-friend know's I'm ready with a deposit on a PHEV Prius ..

I have a 2007 Prius that I plan on lasting me many years (I drive less than 10k per year), but we will replace my wife's 2007 Volvo wagon (6500 miles) with a PHEV Prius when thay come out.

54 MPG!

[elfin]

4. They are going hard after the Chevy Volt

It's ALL about the batteries.

Excellent article in this month's Atlantic on the race to be first and best, with a lot of auto history to boot.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/general-motors

[DainBramaged]

5. EVERYONE is, but the new small Chevy this winter (41+ mpg)

between the Cobalt and the Aveo is expected to get 41+ highway MPG with a turbocharged small displacement 4 cyl. with stop-start technology and between 120-140 hp in a less than 3000 lb. car. THAT will be a very good thing if it comes in under $15000.

[bullwinkle428]

8. Is it the Chevrolet Beat, pictured in this article from another site?

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080602/FREE/516060181/1023/LATESTNEWS

I can see this car being a big hit if they keep the price at a relatively reasonable point...the styling is definitely eye-catching!

[DainBramaged]

10. nope but that may be imported too.

[Trillo]

6. "Metal air" batteries?

Aren't those typically called capacitors?

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. Ultracapacitors

While big Detroit automakers ponder a future plug-in car that goes 40 miles on a battery charge before its gas engine kicks in, Mr. Clifford’s tiny ZENN Motor, a Toronto maker of low-speed electric cars, announced in March that it will build a new highway-speed (80 m.p.h.) model that goes 250 miles on a charge – and can recharge in just five minutes.

Having no batteries, the new “cityZENN” model will use a breakthrough version of a common electrical storage device called an ultracapacitor to store power from a wall socket, the company says. Fuel costs to operate it would be about one-tenth of today’s gas-powered vehicle.

If that astounding claim is real (and there are many skeptics), it could revolutionize automotive travel by making all-electric cars competitive with gas-powered vehicles and easing the world’s dependence on oil.

“The big problem has always been the battery and its limits,” says Clifford, ZENN’s founder and CEO in a phone interview. “This new technology is a 180-degree shift that represents the end of fossil fuel as a transportation fuel.”

That’s because the same ultracapacitor technology could be used across the grid to provide cheap electric storage for wind and solar power, he says. In turn, this process could power millions of ultracapacitor vehicles with no emissions at all. With the cars’ fast-charge capability, recharging stations could pop up to help make even longer trips routine.

Ultracapacitors – also called supercapacitors – are more powerful cousins of the basic capacitor. With activated carbon at their core to act as a sponge for electrons, ultracapacitors can absorb power – or send a charge – far faster than batteries. They are also far more durable.

First used in the 1960s, ultracapacitors today are widely found in electronic devices such as computers. In cameras, they retract and expand zoom lens. Yet the power stored by today’s ultracapacitors is still only about 5 percent as much as a modern lithium-ion battery, far too little to power a car by themselves.

The reported breakthrough was made by ZENN’s business partner EEStor, a Cedar Park, Texas, firm headed by respected computer industry veteran Richard Weir, who’s named on the company’s patent. The company is now nearing commercial production of its new “electrical energy storage unit” or EESU, Clifford says.
>>>>>>>>snip

http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2008/04/16/ultracapacitors-the-future-of-electric-cars-or-the-cold-fusion-of-autovation/

[Rosemary2205]

9. Good god

if they can whip out something that can get 250 miles at 80mph on one charge - and recharge in 5 minutes AND get enough placed along freeways to offer recharge services AFFORDABLE -- my god.

If that happened in my lifetime I'd kiss their feet.

[DainBramaged]

11. Transformers are next

[Rosemary2205]

14. As long as I don't get stranded, needing 1.21 jigowatts I'm OK.

LOL

[Ichingcarpenter]

13. The manufacturing and production of the ultracapacitor is already happening

The Texas Company that makes it:

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/01/eestor_announce.html


More announcements on the highway Zenn

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/03/zenn-motor-comp.html


Zenn motors:

http://www.zenncars.com/

[Firespirit]

12. Nice, but who in the world can afford a new car?

[DainBramaged]

16. You can afford this one

The Chevy AVEO sedan, LEAST expensive car in the US, with a 5-speed and no A/C you can buy it for $9995 and it has a 5 year 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. AND it will get you 34+ MPG on the highway.

[KansDem]

15. At the risk of sounding naive, shouldn't Detroit be making these?

I mean, it seems that all the cutting-edge, state-of-the-art high-efficiency advances in automobile technologies are coming from foreign countries.

[DainBramaged]

17. Coming in 2009 & 2010 read through the thread

[DRoseDARs]

18. Toyota has already corrected the 2010 estimate; mass prod. won't happen until '11-'12 @ earliest

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/06/11/toyota-confirms-plug-in-hybrid-vehicle-on-sale-in-2010/

Update: Don't get too excited yet. We checked with Toyota spokesman Curt McCallister who confirmed that nothing has changed with Toyota's PHEV plans Since CEO Watanabe spoke at the Detroit Auto Show in January. The Panasonic EV plant will begin making lithium batteries late in 2009. However, 2010 will only see a few hundred plug-in Priuses available to government and commercial fleets for testing. The PHEVs would not be available in higher volumes to retail customers until 2011-12 at least.

[DainBramaged]

19. Go Chevy Volt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.chevrolet.com/fuelsolutions/

[DRoseDARs]

21. Production is expected to begin in LATE 2010 so don't expect to see them @ dealerships until... 2011

They've stated they want to get them to consumers before the end of '10, but as in all things, plans get delayed so 2011 is more likely. They're also still trying to work out the battery supplier issue.

Annoying, I know, but there it is. The waiting continues...

[DainBramaged]

22. I bet ya a quarter they are in showrooms Xmas of 2009

[DRoseDARs]

24. I bet ya a quarter GM finds a way to screw the UAW to make that happen...

:P

[harun]

25. Unlike Nissan and Toyota, who are working to build their own batteries,

Detroit shrugs its shoulders and says "can't put into production until someone else invents a good battery". It's like they try to lose.

[DainBramaged]

26. So you know the entire battery story? And who the domestic suppliers are?

Another 'throw it against the wall statement' just to get in on the conversation.:eyes:


Did you know that the latest LiI battery technology developed by the Argonne National laboratory was licensed to the Japanese exclusively, and Detroit was pushed aside?

And did you know GM has a join venture manufacturing the batteries for their own hybrids??

So smart you are!

[harun]

27. I don't care about hybrids.

I want a full plug in vehicle (non-hybrid) in a showroom for sale. First company that puts a full plug-in in the showroom for sale at < 30K gets my 30K.

[Jack_DeLeon]

20. Go Toyota...

When I bought my last car I bought American, I bought a Toyota Camry made in the USA.

Toyota generally gets things right way more than they get it wrong, which is something that unfortunately cant be said about the American manufacturers. I like the way the Japanese seem to have pride in doing things right rather than trying to cut corners and screw their customers the way alot of companies do these days.

[DainBramaged]

23. It's a JAPANESE car assembled in America

and they say right on the radiator brace ASSEMBLED, NOT MADE, there is a HUGE difference, especially because of front companies and the gazillions of parts imported through Canada and Mexico 'qualifying' them for US ASSEMBLY.

No wonder our country is going to hell, people like you think these are fucking American cars.

Ask Toyota why they have fought Union drives at their plants (except NUNNI) for 25 years?


We have pride too, but you have been brainwashed into thinking only imported shit is 'right'.

Ask the Japanese why they wont let us build an assembly plant for GM cars in Japan and maybe when we level the playing field we can call our cars Japanese too.

And you live in TEXAS? WHere is your AMERICAN pride??