Plugging our Plug-Ins
Posted by Colin Hensley on April 29, 2010 in 360° approach, Green Technologies
Yesterday, I came back from Strasbourg where I had been for the launch of a large-scale Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle (PHV) demonstration in Strasbourg together with the French energy provider EDF, and the City and the Urban Community of Strasbourg. We’ve were lucky to have beautiful weather in a wonderfully picturesque city. There will soon be about 100 PHVs zooming around the region. They are not being driven by Toyota people, but by a group of partners who have decided they want to be involved in this trail-blazing activity, and are willing to commit their own resources to be involved (and a huge thanks to them all).
Another great thing about this project is that it will provide masses of data for all of the partners to be able to better understand how our customers will use the vehicles, and allow for the validation of the techno-economic feasibility of the PHV, before we engage in mass production.
Before then though, we have to look at the feedback from the journalists who were driving the cars this week. From talking with the media in Strasbourg, I was glad to find that we had been able to make our strategy for hybrid clearer. One of my colleagues from Toyota Frey in Switzerland also explained that very importantly, PHV could concretely demonstrate the next steps for hybrid. I believe that once we then link in the Fuel Cell hybrids which are now in Europe, our direction will be seen to be both logical and very tangible.
Over the next few months, we will be launching PHV in a total of 18 countries across Europe, so please keep your eyes open for one on a road near you!
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Comments(0)Prius Plug-in Hybrid’s are headed this way
Posted by Colin Hensley on January 15, 2010 in 360° approach, Green Technologies
The end of 2009 saw some important milestones in the development of our Prius Plug-in Hybrids (PHV). We had the launch in Japan of the next phase of the PHV trials, and the handover of the first car for Europe to Mr Roland Ries, the Mayor of Strasbourg. The handover was organised by Etienne and Maria from the team here, in collaboration with colleagues from TMC. We had always planned to have the handover of the first PHV at the end of 2009, and by coincidence, the famous Christmas Market of Strasbourg had decided to “export” itself to Tokyo. This turned out to be a perfect match, and put the Mayor on location to receive the key for PHV that came literally straight from the plant! Though, knowing it’s from Tsutsumi, I should probably say “plants”.
The handover was a very festive affair. Between the wooden stalls of the market, the twinkling Christmas lights, the PHV was unveiled to be inside a huge snow globe. At that point, following some short speeches, Mr Uchiyamada, EVP of TMC handed over the massive car key – no chance of losing that one. Fortunately for the potential driver, this is just a symbolic key, they car itself follows a more traditional approach for starting up, but a less conventional one for fuelling.
Offering more than 20km in EV mode the PHV gives totally emission-free motoring for most of your daily journeys (assuming you charged it up with electricity from renewable sources). Furthermore, It can be charged on normal household power in less than two hours. There will be more than 190 PHVs coming to Europe over the next months, and with this number of vehicles, we will be able to gauge the actual expectations and requirements of the customer. Consequently, the future mass-production model should be well appreciated.
What are your thoughts on Plug-in hybrids?
FUTURE MOTORING, AS WE SEE IT, FROM THE TOKYO MOTOR SHOW
Posted by Colin Hensley on October 25, 2009 in 360° approach, Green Technologies
On Wednesday I was able to spend some time at the Tokyo Motor Show, and to quote our President Akio Toyoda, it “wasn’t as lively as it used to be”. That being said, we still had quite a lot to show at the Toyota and Lexus stands. In the central area was the new electric vehicle, the FT-EV II. I was lucky enough to have an explanation from Yanaka-san, who has been involved in the development of the vehicle. Some of the key features are 90km range, 100km/h top speed and drive-by-wire technology using a joystick!, this ensures there is plenty of legroom, because there are no pedals!! I do believe that this kind of electric vehicle will be a boon in the cities, where we do lots of short journeys, back and forth work or the shops.
We could also see the second generation PHV that we were proud to have as world premiere in Frankfurt. When I look at it compared to the FT-EV II I see that PHV is basically an EV with an extended range thanks to it being a proper full hybrid. For 20km, (that’d easily get me to work and back) it drives as an EV, then takes the power from the engine, in combination with the electric motor. Here at Toyota we believe this is a really practical approach to using electricity in transport and ideally this electricity will come from renewable sources
My absolute favourites were the personal mobility devices. These include the Winglets, which are two-wheeled, “personal-transport-assistance robots” sounds cool, and looks even cooler. Just jump on, lean in the direction that you want to go, and zoom, off you glide. One day soon, I hope to have a go, and then I’ll be sure to write about it here.
Looking across the range of vehicles, all of them use different aspects of the technology that we have developed in the hybrid programmes. Motors, batteries, power control units and most importantly the software based logic to manage the use of the different sources of energy. With more than 2 million hybrids on the road, I think it’s fair to say we know exactly what needs to be done to make the best use of electricity in transportation.
P.S. At the show I also saw the new FT-86 (hachi roku) Concept, a compact rear wheel drive sports car. I thought it was a really lovely looking car, and, with its 2 litre engine, and light body, it will even have good environmental performance.
“Keep your eyes on them there hills… the PHV is a comin’”
Posted by Colin Hensley on May 15, 2009 in 360° approach, Green Technologies
This week is really about a few updates of previous posts. At the end of March I wrote about the Plug-in hybrids that we are testing, and the plans for enlarging this test in Europe. At the time I just mentioned the cars that will be going to Strasbourg, well things are starting to move on quite nicely. We are now in discussion to bring the cars to the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, and as you can imagine are keen to work with other countries too if we can. As a consequence, it looks like we will certainly need more than the originally planned number of 150 cars here in Europe.
This is great for us, as we will have even more data to evaluate, and more opinions and experiences of the drivers who are participating in this limited lease pilot. PHV won’t be ready for mass commercialisation for a little while, but when it is, we believe PHV will really complement the Prius, and the other full hybrids in our line-up.
I also promised to update you on the Toyota Technology Challenge in the UK. Well, the final is tomorrow at the Burnaston plant, and there will be thirteen teams competing from all across the country. The teams have already won their regional heats and are now competing for the national title in each of the categories. Seven will compete in the solar powered vehicle category and six in the PIC microcontroller category. Good luck to all of the teams, and, I will, of course, let you know who is finally triumphant
PHV - It’s a hybrid Jim, but not as we know it
Posted by Colin Hensley on March 24, 2009 in 360° approach, Green Technologies
You may have seen some press reports last week about the plans for the launch of a significant trial of Toyota plug-in hybrids (PHVs) in Strasbourg, France. This is an activity we are doing in collaboration with EDF, a major French electricity provider. Later this year about 100 PHVs will be leased to selected companies and partners and will start running around Strasbourg.
These are what I suppose we could call our second generation PHVs, they will have lithium-ion batteries. The limited trial in London and Paris with the first generation used nickel metal hydride batteries, (that’s the same type as we used in the other 1.7 million hybrids we have sold around the world.)
PHVs really give you the best of both worlds, for short trips or commutes they are an electric vehicle, but once you need to go further, they are just like a normal full hybrid. That means you get the full performance of the vehicle at all times. When you can choose to use electricity from a renewable source, the car will be running at zero-emissions while in EV mode.
One of the reasons for the trial is to really try to find the optimum balance between EV range cruising range and battery capacity. It always possible to give a car greater autonomy, by adding more batteries, but this has a negative impact in terms of cost, weight and usability.
I haven’t yet had a chance to drive the PHV, but I look forward to doing so in the future, and you can be sure you will hear about it here, first!
I’d really like to hear your thoughts on the future direction of sustainable mobility, and which type of vehicles will be the most popular. At the end of the day, it will be the customer that has to make the decision for what they want.
