Comments on: Toyota President Claims “we must go beyond lithium-ion” to Develop Plug-in Hybrids

By: ROBERT GIULIANI

ROBERT GIULIANI — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:51:56 +0000

Does all this talk about batteries mean the end of the combustion engine for large vehicles e.g. trucks, large marine engines, buses, farm tractors, maybe helicopters, etc??

By: Kathlene

Kathlene — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 15:09:49 +0000

There’s no doubt that EV’s are the way of the future. All this hybrid crap is unreal to me. I don’t understand why none of the big three are building EV’s, when in the 1800’s there were EV’s with ranges of 40 miles or more. We have the battery technology in LiFePo4, we have the infrastructure to recharge batteries in place, we have the desire of the people to drive for nearly free and say &*^% you to the oil companies… I’m guessing that the big three must be getting payoffs from big oil. I can see no other reason to wait to produce the volt or any other concept EV. For Christ’s sake, GM was producing an EV in the early 90’s that had a 180 mile range! But they killed it, could it have been a payoff from the oil co’s???
I own an electric Ford Ranger that I bought from LionEV.com. the only problem with it is that there were no balancers manufactured for the LiFePo4 batteries at the time of the sale/conversion. Now there are balancers being produced, and LionEV is replacing my 100AH batteries with 200AH batteries, so once they are installed, with the balancers from hotjuiceelectric.com, I should have at least a 200 mile range with this vehicle. I’m just sick that the major automakers have not achieved the same.
Corruption MUST be the cause. How are we gonna stop that?

By: MRWSM

MRWSM — Sun, 25 May 2008 05:14:14 +0000

The 150 MPG is I think for either 60 or 80 miles of driving which should cover the remaining 19% of the driving public, leaving 1% for longer commutes that will, like you said get 50 MPG. I was not specific enough, but just trying to compare the 2 cars. The first 40 miles if fully charged will not use gas. Unless, you do not plug in. If you don’t plan on plugging in, then you might as well buy a regular car. I was just trying to make a point. Why would you want a more complex vehicle when you can have a better vehicle.

By: Jeff M

Jeff M — Sat, 24 May 2008 04:52:08 +0000

MRWSM, I think you may be confused… after it stops driving off the battery and the generator (range extender) kicks in, it doesn’t get 150mpg… I think it’s something like 50mpg or maybe a little more.

The 150mpg number you may have heard is an “average” of using no gas at all for the 1st 40 miles and another X number of miles of running off the generator. The bigger “X” is, the lower the average mpg will be.

It’s marketing message you’ll hear from any plug-in (including those after market conversions of the Prius). However if it’s never plugged in, the MPG will be only whatever you can get off the “range extender”.

By: MRWSM

MRWSM — Sat, 24 May 2008 04:39:38 +0000

Hmm, let’s see, do you want something that is complex or do you want a GM Volt that uses no gas for 80% of the driving public, gets 150 MPG for the rest and has a million mile electric motor with little or no maintenance and looks like a sporty car rather than a box. That’s a tough one.

By: Roger

Roger — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 02:24:00 +0000

Check out Tesla Motors

By: Daniel

Daniel — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 21:51:53 +0000

This is typical of the Japanese, they wait for other to do the expensive research and then come in and refine and improve it and blow the original developers out of the water. Just look at the OLED, Kodak invented it but now Sony is making money on there new ultra thin TV’s.

By: noel park

noel park — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 20:53:18 +0000

925 pounds? I love it. Weight is the enemy.

Having said that, Toyota is not exactly discovering a new concept by deciding that range will be extended by light weight. Every aircraft and racing car designer worth his or her salt has known that to 100 years. Or maybe forever.

Still, somebody said here earlier that simple is elegant. If I could buy a viable 925 pound car, I would buy it and take my chances with the Escalades. They are going to go the way of the Dodo bird soon enough anyway.

By: Steven B

Steven B — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 19:24:34 +0000

Just to point something out real quick: GM actually has experience with all kinds of listed vehicle types: ICEs (gas and diesel) obviously, BEV (the EV1), mild/assist/parallel hybrids (BAS in the Aura, Malibu, VUE, etc.), full/parallel-series hybrids (2-mode hybrid, and plug-in 2-mode hybrid in the upcoming Yukon, Tahoe, etc., as well as the VUE plug-in in 2009), and then there is the range-extending electric car (the Volt, to come out in 2010). So if you want to, you could put the discussion of PHEVs, HEVs, BEVs, ICEs, and RxEVs in the context of GMs current, future, and historical product lines. And for the comparison of RxEVs and PHEVs, the actual trade-offs will probably be cost: PHEVs need smaller batteries but more complexity to provide triple-digit MPGs, and RxEVs need larger batteries with less complexity to achieve the same goal. More batteries means more cost and more weight, less batteries means less weight, less cost, and less realized MPGs. The real issue in the move towards electrified vehicles, though, is petroleum independence and better driving. Cost, complexity, weight, and aesthetics are factors that will affect the development of the new market, but are not the driver to it.

By: SRSCHRIER

SRSCHRIER — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:40:50 +0000

Is a market developing for conversion of existing cars to 100% EV such as those being advertised by LiOn EV? The LiOn EV conversions are said to provide up to 400+ mile range depending upon the configuration of their new lithium battery packs, have rapid recharge capability, with routine service by existing dealerships.