Toyota will show an all-electric version of the RAV4 it is developing with Tesla Motors and will introduce a plug-in Prius to the U.S. in May or June 2012, the head of the automaker’s research and development said today.
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In addition, Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota executive vice president, said Toyota will introduce six new gasoline-electric hybrid models globally by the end of 2012.
The plug-in Prius will compete with the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf, both of which go on sale in the U.S. late this year. Uchiyamada said the company expects to sell slightly more than 20,000 a year and expects the price to be between $3,000 and $5,000 higher than the price of a conventional gas-electric
Prius.
Prius.
Toyota is looking for two benefits from the partnership with Tesla that the companies announced in May.
The first is better battery technology, Uchiyamada said. Tesla uses many small cells of lithium-ion batteries similar to those in a laptop computer.
The second is to learn how Tesla develops products faster than a traditional automaker.
Uchiyamada, regarded within Toyota as the father of the Prius, said joint product development on the RAV4 electric vehicle has already begun at the Toyota Technical Center in Ann Arbor.
Uncertainty surrounding access to charging stations and consumers’ willingness to use them could slow market acceptance of Toyota’s and other automakers’ plug-in cars. That’s why Toyota will continue to launch new vehicles based on the proven technology of mating a battery pack with a gas engine. Of the six new gas-electric hybrids it plans to introduce in the next 28 months, three will be only hybrids and
three will be hybrid versions of models that will also be sold with gas-only engines.
three will be hybrid versions of models that will also be sold with gas-only engines.
Beyond battery-powered cars, Toyota is working to introduce a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle to the U.
S. by 2015 if it can cut the cost by about 95% and a sufficient hydrogen fueling network is established.
S. by 2015 if it can cut the cost by about 95% and a sufficient hydrogen fueling network is established.
Separately, Uchiyamada said Toyota has still not found evidence of unintended acceleration in 150
event data recorders in models suspected of behaving erratically. The company did find a software bug in some of readers used to download the recorders, but Uchiyamada said that flaw has been fixed and after re-examining the event data recorders there was still no evidence that any of the 150 vehicles took off
event data recorders in models suspected of behaving erratically. The company did find a software bug in some of readers used to download the recorders, but Uchiyamada said that flaw has been fixed and after re-examining the event data recorders there was still no evidence that any of the 150 vehicles took off
