My question is whether or not we will be able to afford to charge these cars up if electricity prices increase.

The Toyota Motor Corporation, which leads the worldÂ’s automakers in sales of hybrid-electric vehicles, announced Sunday night that it would build its first plug-in hybrid by 2010.

The move puts Toyota in direct competition with General Motors, which has announced plans to sell its own plug-in hybrid vehicle, the Chevrolet Volt, sometime around 2010.

Katsuaki Watanabe, the president of Toyota, announced the companyÂ’s plans at the Detroit auto show as part of a series of environmental steps.

Mr. Watanabe said Toyota, best known for its Prius hybrid car, would develop a fleet of plug-in hybrids that run on lithium-ion batteries, instead of the nickel-metal hydride batteries that power the Prius and other Toyota models.

Plug-in hybrids differ from the current hybrid vehicles in that they can be recharged externally, from an ordinary power outlet. In a conventional hybrid the battery is recharged from power generated by its wheels.

I'm really curious how efficient these plug-in hybrids will be. How far will the go between charges, and how much energy will they use? The numbers in this article are not encouraging -- and the car still uses gasoline to operate. I guess i don;t see the advantage or the practicality.

Posted by: Greg at 10:50 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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