Fleets test plug-in Prius

The company which has led commercial development of hybrid/electric technology with Prius and will have the Australian-made hybrid Camry in the market by the end of the year is poised to take the next big step with range-extended plug-in hybrids utilising the latest generation of Lithium-ion battery technology.

"The philosophy with this development step -and it is a philosophy being followed by other companies developing similar systems - is that the vehicles are made available on a lease arrangement and put into the marketplace for up to a three year term with selected users," Ashley Edwards, Toyota Motor Corporation Australia product planning manager, said yesterday.

Mr Edwards said that while there was no confirmed action plan the company was "studying" the best way to integrate the next-generation cars into a real-world testing program.

"I think the ultimate idea would be to provide the vehicle with enough freedom to gather really valuable information from the community ... so government personnel or an electricity infrastructure provider would be a good starting point."

Mr Edwards said that while an ideal list of candidates had not been finalised it was possible that a testing program could be implemented by next year.

"While the cars are not available right at this moment I would envisage 2010 ... It could be a 2010 program."

Lithium-ion battery technology has several major advantages over the current industry-standard nickel-metal hydride batteries with greater range, less weight and longer active life but they are far more expensive.

"Toyota is continuing to develop its Lithium-ion technology but at the moment I think there is a real downside in the global economic crisis ... what I think that has done is push back some of the payback in terms of sales and volume," Mr Edwards said.

"Toyota is obviously looking at a complete arsenal of products in this area, starting with the Prius but moving through other developments such as the PHV (plug-in hybrid vehicle) and beyond."

Mr Edwards said that Toyota was taking a "watching brief" with regard to the VTG (vehicle to grid) developments where an electric vehicle can be used to "feed" unused electricity back into the grid.

"In regards to that kind of infrastructure integration we are observing what Australia is planning and we are involved in a working group with the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries to discover the best way of formulating the infrastructure to serve the mobility solution," Mr Edwards said.

"We haven't really got a position on it yet but we are looking at options available to us and using the working group to help understand those options."