Toyota showed its new plug-in hybrid yesterday, available for leasing this month in Japan, the US and Europe and promised the green vehicle for sale to regular consumers by 2011 at an “affordable” price.
The plug-in Prius is the first from Toyota Motor Corp packed with a more powerful battery called lithium-ion, which is different from the batteries used in Prius hybrids on roads today.
A plug-in is even friendlier to the environment than the regular Prius because it travels longer as an electric vehicle.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Toyota leads rivals in hybrids, especially in Japan, where government incentives have made the Prius a top-seller for months.
About 600 of the vehicles will be introduced in Japan, the US and Europe — 230 in Japan, 150 in the US and 200 in Europe — over the first half of next year starting this month, the company said.
The customers are businesses and governments. One hundred are going to the city of Strasbourg, France.
Toyota’s plug-in travels 23.4km as an electric vehicle on a single charge and gets 57km a liter in mileage.
When the charge runs out, a plug-in starts running like a regular hybrid, ensuring drivers won’t run out of power on the road.
In a demonstration for reporters at a Toyota showroom, the Prius plug-in quietly glided through a small, winding course even when the driver pushed moderately on the gas pedal to reach close to 60kph. The car can reach up to 100kph.
The gasoline engine part of the hybrid kicks in only when the battery runs out, or if the driver pushes too hard on the gas pedal for acceleration, according to Toyota.
The plug-in recharges from a regular household socket in two hours.
Toyota tests for a plug-in prototype found half the people traveled less than 25km a day.
Toyota declined to give a leasing price, saying that it was being set with customers but acknowledged it was not going to make any money from the leasing.
Executive vice president Takeshi Uchiyamada said he could not give an estimate for the vehicle’s price when it goes on sale in 2011, because details were still undecided and consumer demand was hard to predict.
“I can only say it will be a price that will have potential buyers seeing a plug-in as a viable option,” he said.
Uchiyamada said many hurdles remain for electric vehicles to become widespread, including limited cruising range and cost for the battery, making a plug-in still the best practical option.
He said Toyota was waiting until 2011 before commercial sales to gain feedback from users during the leasing period.
“We have been working on developing efficient powertrains to be able to use oil as efficiently as possible,” he said. “But many hurdles remain for alternative fuels.”
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
LEAP FORWARD: The new tanks are ‘decades more advanced than’ the army’s current fleet and would enable it to compete with China’s tanks, a source said A shipment of 38 US-made M1A2T Abrams tanks — part of a military procurement package from the US — arrived at the Port of Taipei early yesterday. The vehicles are the first batch of 108 tanks and other items that then-US president Donald Trump announced for Taiwan in 2019. The Ministry of National Defense at the time allocated NT$40.5 billion (US$1.25 billion) for the purchase. To accommodate the arrival of the tanks, the port suspended the use of all terminals and storage area machinery from 6pm last night until 7am this morning. The tanks are expected to be deployed at the army’s training
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS