Toyota Unwraps EV Concept, Says Plug-Ins, More Hybrids On The Way
By John O'Dell January 10, 2009
Toyota's concept electric vehicle is a light-duty runabout based on Japanese-market iQ commuter car.
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
The battery-electric city car concept Toyota Motor Corp. will unveil Sunday afternoon in Detroit at the North American International Auto Show is confirmation, the automaker said today, of Toyota's intent to begin selling an urban EV by 2010.
In a pre-show statement, Toyota's chief US spokesman also said the automaker, undaunted by the present collapse of auto sales around the globe, intends in the next few years to :
- intensify the launch of conventional hybrid models;
- push development of plug-in hybrids that can run solely on electric power for extended periods, and ;
- use concepts like the city EV to expand its alternative vehicles efforts beyond the hybrid technology it has helped perfect.
iQ With Batteries
The EV concept, which hasn't been seen until now, is expected to generate as much buzz as the new hybrids, however.
Photos released today (top, right and below)
show the Toyota electric car, the FT-EV Concept, as a tiny two-seater based on the popular Toyota iQ urban commuter car launched last year in Japan.
Toyota says the FT-EV concept is an attempt to examine a car that would fit the needs and lifestyle of an urban dweller who drives no more than 50 miles a day and uses public transit for longer trips.
"Last summer's $4-a-gallon gasoline was no anomaly, it was a brief glimpse of our future" Toyota spokesman Irv Miller said in a statement released with the photos.
"We must address the inevitability of peak oil [the point at which global production begins to decline] by developing vehicles powered by alternatives to liquid-oil fuel, as well as new concepts, like the iQ, that are lighter in weight and smaller in size," said Miller, group vice president for environmental and public affairs at Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A.
At the Los Angeles International Auto Show in November, the company showed a concept hybrid Camry that used compressed natural gas rather than gasoline for its internal combustion engine.
Seeking a Broad Palette
The natural-gas Camry hybrid and the electric FT-EV, Miller said, signal Toyota's intent to broaden the scope of its alternative-fuel vehicle program beyond gasoline-electric hybrids such as the best-selling Prius.
Toyota isn't abandoning conventional hybrids, however.
The third-generation Prius (right)
and the new Lexus hybrid sedan being show Sunday are part of a group of 10 new hybrid models Toyota intends to launch in the early part of the next decade.
Toyota also reaffirmed that it intends to roll out a fleet of plug-in hybrid Priuses late this year for testing by fleet-leasing customers.
Plug-Ins On the Way
The company said today that it will deliver 500 of the so-called PHEVs, which will use lithium-ion batteries for extended all-electric travel.
Only 150 will come to the U.S., however, with the remainder slated for customers in Japan and possibly other Toyota global markets.
The batteries will be built at he Panasonic EV Energy Co. in Japan, a joint venture in which Toyota holds a 60 percent controlling stake.
The company said the 2010 Prius being shown Sunday was designed to use either the present model's nickel-metal hydride batteries or the more powerful lithium-ion batteries if Toyota engineers are convinced they will be safe and reliable.
The 500 preliminary plug-in Priuses will be used to gather battery data as information about real-word use and operation, Miller said.
It will be "the key step in confirming how and when we might bring large numbers of plug-in hybrids to global markets," he said.
Photos show FT-EV Concept's instrument panel, rear end and custom wheels. Click to enlarge.
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