Toyota Reportedly Sticking With Nickel Battery After Testing Lithium-Ion in Priuses
By Scott Doggett September 14, 2009
Toyota Motor Corp. is sticking with nickel as the preferred battery material for most of its hybrid vehicles after three years of secretly testing Prius hatchbacks with lithium-ion packs, Bloomberg reported today.
Toyota last month ended road tests of 126 Priuses in the U.S., Japan and Europe that began in 2006, Jana Hartline, a company spokeswoman said in an interview with the news service. Details of the program, in which the cars' nickel metal hydride batteries were replaced with more expensive lithium models, weren't released.
Automakers are introducing models all or partly powered by lithium-ion batteries holding twice the energy of nickel packs. While Toyota's lithium version performed well and gave "small" fuel-economy gains because of lighter weight, nickel is favored for conventional, mass-market hybrids for its cost, said Kazuo Tojima, the carmaker's senior staff engineer for batteries.
Lithium's "durability, stability and safety are assured," the company's tests showed, Tojima told Bloomberg.
The tests appear to be among the most thorough done by companies planning to introduce the batteries, said Menahem Anderman, president of consulting firm Advanced Automotive Batteries in Oregon House, California.
"We now know that a lithium-ion battery can work; that's not really the question," he said. "Cost is critical, and we still don't know enough about long-term durability."
Plug-in Prius
Toyota has sold more than 2 million hybrid cars and light trucks worldwide since introducing the low-emissions Prius in Japan in 1997, almost all using nickel. The automaker hasn't announced plans to sell standard hybrids with lithium batteries in the U.S.
This year, Toyota will begin delivering test fleets in the U.S., Japan and Europe consisting of plug-in Priuses that can run 12 miles solely on lithium-ion battery power after charging at an electrical outlet. The car is being shown this week at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
The company also plans to sell a small electric car for urban commuters, powered solely by lithium packs, by 2012.
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