More electric plug-in cars coming to the market
Toyota is jumping into the plug-in market with a version of its popular Prius in 2011, according to a story the New York Times.
The story says Toyota had been hesitant to join GM, which plans to make 60,000 plug-in Volts available in 2010. Ford, Volksvagon and Nisson also have cars coming.
Toyota's hesitation has been the low number of miles on a charge, lack of charging stations, cost and the rotten economy. But, the car maker can't stand still, in case this is the Next Big Green Thing.
No idea what the car would cost, but the hybrid Prius starts at $22,400.
The Times reports that the new Prius would make it 14.5 miles on a charge before the gas-electric hybird systems kicks in. That would get the car 134 miles per gallon. It would charge in 100 minutes. The company also plans an all-electric version of the car for "urban commuters" in 2012 that would run on lithium-ion batteries.
So, would you buy one? I drive like 4 miles round trip for work, plus some driving for interviews, so it seems like I'd be a target audience. But I have no driveway and couldn't charge one. How about you?
Associated Press photo of the plug-in hybrid Prius
Comments
It will really rely on the convenience of charging the car will be. Will there be curbside charging stations, home charging units, garages set up with chargers? I,like you,drive very little and live in the city so it will be a wait and see situation.
Posted by: Don | December 15, 2009 5:42 AM
Meredith…it likely would be far more cost-effective for you to buy a regular Toyota Prius hybrid vehicle instead of a plug-in hybrid.
Toyota has yet to reveal how much MORE they intend to sell their plug-in hybrid model compared to the base list price of $22,400 for their standard hybrid Prius – which averages 50 miles/gallon (see: http://www.toyota.com/prius-hybrid/specs.html ). However, GM planned to market their Chevy Volt plug-in model for about $40,000. Gas prices would need to rise considerably higher than $3/gallon before it would be economically attractive for most folks to pay thousands of dollars more for a new vehicle that has plug-in capability.
It would cost about $720/year for gasoline (at $3/gal) to drive 12,000 miles in a new standard Prius, whereas the cost to drive that same distance in a plug-in Prius vehicle using only electricity to charge its batteries would be half - $360/year - given an optimal efficiency rate in converting electricity to miles travelled of 5 miles/kWh and assuming the cost of electricity remains $.15/kWh (about what it costs you today). The 5 miles/kWh efficiency rate assumes you rarely use your vehicle's heater or air-conditioner and don't drive much with your headlights on – as these activities would significantly drain the vehicles batteries.
Consequently, if you buy a plug-in model vehicle that costs $3,000 more than a standard Prius hybrid, you may need to drive it for 8 years averaging at least 12,000 miles/year from your plug-in vehicle's batteries in order for this purchase to be cost-effective. If you drive a new plug-in hybrid on average only 8,000 miles per year, you would save only about $240 per year over the cost of gas to drive same mileage in a standard Prius hybrid vehicle (i.e., it would take 12 year s to “break even” on the cost).
Keep in mind that charging each plug-in hybrid electric vehicle’s batteries so they can power the car 12,000 miles per year would increase the average MD household’s annual demand for electricity by about 20%. Half of our region’s electricity comes from burning coal, so powering a large fleet of plug-in passenger vehicles would make it much tougher to reduce the necessity to mine and burn dirty coal.
Posted by: Dan B | December 15, 2009 11:55 AM
Hello
I think its really a good news about Toyota company.I have checked that report New York Times link which you have given.Thank you very much for giving such good news.
Posted by: vitamin k | December 18, 2009 2:16 AM