Volt Birth Watch 141: Toyota Laughs at the Volt, Indirectly
Bloomberg is all over Bill Reinert’s presentation to a National Academy of Sciences panel today in Washington. And why not? Toyota’s US national manager for advanced technology says plug-in hybrid vehicles are a non-starter. “Toyota estimates sales of hybrids that can be recharged at household outlets may be 50,000 units a year at most and could be as few as 3,500.” Not expressed: those kind of numbers wouldn’t even pay the HVAC bill for the building where Chevy engineers are busy trying to cobble together the new plug-in electric/gas hybrid Volt. Reinert’s not dancing on the Volt’s grave, but that’s only because it’s not dead. Yet. But the signs—admittedly as provided by the vehicle’s competitors—are not good.
Tests of Priuses fitted with $10,000 lithium-ion packs from battery maker A123 Systems Inc. found fuel economy rose only to mid-to-low 50 miles per gallon from the standard Prius’s 46 mpg rating, Toyota said. The results of the tests by Google Inc.’s Google.Org, Consumer Reports and Portland General Electric include energy used to recharge the extra batteries.
The automaker also cited recent studies by Duke University and Carnegie Mellon University showing plug-ins may provide only limited reduction of greenhouse gases compared with current hybrids such as Prius that don’t need to be plugged in.
What say you GM?
GM hasn’t changed its plan to begin selling the Volt in 2010, said Mark Verbrugge, director of the company’s materials and processes laboratory in Warren, Michigan.
Projected costs have come down, but not as far as the company would have liked, Verbrugge said. He declined to say anything about the vehicle’s projected sticker price.
Oh dear.
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-Nicholas Weaver : Thanks for responding Actually, the Gen 3 prius IS an electric car. I'll try to avoid the semantics here, but an 80Hp electric motor does not an electric car make. First the new Gen 3 has the same battery energy as the previous Gen2, namely 1300Whrs, so it is no more the electric car than it was previously. Second the 72A-Hr lead-acid in your car, by comparison, stores about 900Whrs so this is a similar small amount of energy. Someone may correct me but this represents less than a half pint of gasoline. With this amount of energy the Prius battery will give you only a couple of miles at 42mph since the Prius limits depth of discharge to 20% for longevity reasons. Just not enough to warrant classifying as an electric car in my opinion, but quite useful to avoid unnecessary gasoline engine startups in stop n' go driving I'll admit. On the Prius, the NiMH Battery ECU allows up to a maximum of 10Kw braking energy absorption, granted that it provides significantly reduced brake wear, but this is nowhere near the 100kw that the battery on the VOLT could absorb. But then the VOLT IS a genuine electric car. However don't let the fact that the Prius is not an electric car, in the pure sense, shield you from realizing the huge advantage of having a partially decoupled engine on the powertrain of a vehicle. I would advise you not to get hung up on the battery but concentrate that you have an engine which is always in the right gear. Close to lugging when cruising but able to soar, freed from the inertia of the vehicle, to redline at a moments notice. With conventional powertrains the engine is handicapped by having to drag the whole vehicle along with it as it strives to reach maximum power at redline. It's just the battery technology isn’t here yet for a viable electric-only car I beg to disagree and somewhere in the desert lay 300 crushed EV1's to prove it. It wasn't that the battery packs weren't up to the task. It was just the mind of a man that wasn't up to it. A man who was recently relieved of his post by the President of the United States if I recall. Needless to say, a 120 mile range 2 seater that plugs in at home won't suit 100% of the population. That's right. Perhaps only 85% to 90% could be satisfied. But that 85% to 90% still have the option to 'day rent' a more versatile gasoline powered vehicle when needed. T2
Check out the reliability of this Toyota hybrid... http://jalopnik.com/5261006/toyota-hybrid-breaks-down-towed-off-track-before-nascar-event