Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s biggest seller of gasoline-electric hybrid cars, intends to begin retail sales of a plug-in version of its Prius hybrid in two years’ time as environmental concerns spur demand for fuel- efficient vehicles.
The company aims to sell “several tens of thousands” of plug-ins a year globally, Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada told reporters in Tokyo. Toyota will begin leasing the cars today to governments and businesses and aims to sign agreements covering 600 through the first half of 2010.
The company will also start selling a short-distance pure electric car in 2012. Nissan Motor Co., General Motors Co., Daimler AG and startups such as Tesla Motors Co. are also readying vehicles that run entirely or in part on electricity as governments push for vehicles that will reduce gasoline use and trim carbon-dioxide emissions.
Toyota’s plug-in, which can be recharged at household electrical outlets, initially runs solely on electricity generated by a lithium-ion battery. After about 23.4 kilometers (14.5 miles) of driving, a gasoline engine kicks in to run with the battery on a hybrid system. The overall fuel economy is about 57 kilometers per liter (134 mpg), Uchiyamada said.
The battery supplier for the plug-in hybrid is Panasonic EV Energy Co., a joint venture between Panasonic Corp. and Toyota. In the future, the carmaker may also buy from other suppliers such as Sanyo Electric Co., he said.
The pricing on the plug-in vehicle will be “affordable,” Uchiyamada said. In the U.S., kits to convert the Prius hybrid into a plug-in sell for about $10,000, so the price difference should be less than the conversion cost, he said.
Toyota didn’t provide details on the short-range electric vehicles today. Sales of the pure electric car will likely be “a lot less” than those for the plug-in, Uchiyamada said.
Carlos Ghosn, Chief Executive Officer of Yokohama, Japan- based Nissan, has said electric cars will make up at least 10 percent of global demand by 2020, assuming oil costs more than $70 a barrel.
GM plans to build as many as 60,000 Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric cars annually starting in November 2010.
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