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For full features; Go to Toyota to make plug-in hybrid by 2010
Toyota Motor plans to produce lithium ion batteries next year for a plug-in
hybrid vehicle available in 2010.
The company on Wednesday said that the plug-in hybrid will be "geared
toward fleet customers in Japan, (the) United States, and Europe."
A joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic EV Energy plans to begin
production of lithium ion batteries next year and move to full-scale
production in 2010. Using the battery, Toyota plans to introduce a small
electric vehicle for mass production.
Toyota's Prius, numbering a million sold, uses a nickel metal hydride
battery. Lithium ion batteries, which are heavily used in consumer
electronics, are being built into an upcoming generation of hybrid-electric
and plug-in hybrid cars.
Later in the month, Toyota plans to establish a research-and-development
center for next-generation batteries that outperform lithiom ion
batteries.
The company, which also continues to invest in fuel cell vehicles, recently
began a lease program in Japan.
Toyota disclosed on Wednesday its plug-in hybrid production plans at a
company-sponsored environmental forum in Tokyo, where it outlined its
greenhouse gas reduction and clean-technology plans.
Source: C|Net News.
jdgomez
Am I the only one HIGHLY doubtful that Toyota will have a mass produced
plug in hybrid designed, built, and on the floors by 2010?
Further, does anybody have the figures on electricity? IIRC most of ours
comes via coal from China. If enough people swap to plug ins to make a
dent in gas prices, won't that just increase coal prices? Also, I'm pretty
sure that for every unit of energy produced coal burns dirtier.
Also, I can't fathom what a Lithium battery large enough to power a car
would cost.
Seems to me politicians and car companies just try to look like they're
doing something.
And while where on the topic, why no nuclear plants? Why not more
windfarms out in the desert?
giant016
I think that a plug in car is a feel good thing, like most environmental
things. when you buy a plug in hybrid, it eliminates the need stop at the
gas station and shell out $80.00 every week. sure, it's going to add to
your electric bill, but you already pay that, and I don't think an electric
bill has the same shock effect. Also, people don't think about the coal and
oil power plants, when they think plug in hybrid, they see wind farms and
solar panels in the background.
The benefit of a plug in hybrid is that you can eliminate the transmission,
and reduce the size of the engine and fuel tank, which gives you more room
for more batteries. My greatest concern would be the useful life span of a
lithium battery. my cell phone has a lithium battery, it is only about 1.5
years old, but it doesn't last half as long on a charge as it used to. It
would be very expensive to replace your battery every 2 years.
As for the nuclear power plants, people see them as very unsafe, and are
not comfortable living within a 200 mile radius of one. aside from that,
there is the problem of disposing of the waste, and the environmental
impact of the waste. also, it takes a considerable amount of water to run
one, which riles up the environmentalists.
Wind farms have their own set of problems. The first is that they are big,
tall, and noisy. One of our local car washes wants to put a small one up,
but it has been sitting on the ground for at least 2 years now, becuase the
neighbors are complaining that it will be noisy and ruin the scenery. of
course, if you dont put it near where people are living, you don't need to
worry about those problems, but then you have to worry about transmitting
the power to where it is needed, and the ability to get to them to service
them on regular intervals. People also cry about interupting the flight
patterns of migratory birds.
dvdrose18
It costs a lot less to charge the hybrid batteries than to travel that
distance using gas. The batteries last longer than you'd expect--the Prius
comes with a 150,000 mile or 10 year warranty on them.
It doesn't matter if you get 25 miles per gallon or 40 though, if you can't
afford gas. Politicians can do so much, but they're more worried about
saving some birds than whether people can afford necessities. There is so
much oil under and around the U.S. that can be used for a while until other
alternatives are viable, there is a lot of coal that can be converted to
gas, as well. Only about 1/3 of U.S. oil is imported from unstable
countries (i.e. Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, etc).
There's that huge windfarm that some guy (T. Boone Pickens[sp?]) is gonna
build in Texas that can power millions of homes, which is a start. Nuclear
is perfectly safe too. The only accident to have occurred with a nuclear
reactor with fatalities is Chernobyl, which was a) in the Soviet Union, and
b) unsafe even compared to Soviet standards.
Everyone should check out this site: Drill here. Drill now.
(http://www.americansolutions.com/Default.aspx) Does everyone remember how
the democrats promised to lower gas prices? All they've done is asked some
terrible questions to oil executives--who have very little control over
prices--while gas has went up by over $1.50 in the last year and a half.
Remember that in November.
Has anyone heard of hypermiling? I saw a guy on the news with an 04 Accord
who was getting twice as many miles to the gallon as Honda advertised.
Basically, he never brakes at turns, always goes the speed limit, drafts
behind trucks, and never idles.
chris_knows
The Prius batteries are NiMH, not Lithium like the completely electric plug
in will be. And now it may be cost effective to plug in, but if the switch
is ever made by the world towards electric cars, electricity prices will go
up, and gas prices will go down.
And Chris, lets not blame it all on the bleeding hearts. They lie and fib
like all politicians. There are plenty of things to remember on both sides
come November. Hmm...maybe after all the battles they're not so different.
If you believed them in the first place I overestimated you. No matter
who you are, no matter what side you're on, to make it high up in politics
you have to take $ from people you shouldn't and tell people what they want
to hear. Politicians need support from things like interest groups, which
means thay then need to make those groups happy. Further, if a politician
was completely honest and said that there isn't shit that he/she can do,
and things are going to get worse before they get better, it would be
hurtful to them and their party. I'll give them some cred for getting on
the oil companies' minds, but I agree that it will do very little.
Are you saying the executives can't do anything about prices or oil
companies can't do anything about prices?
I hope the windfarm is successful. Although around here there aren't many
places they could go, out west there are just acres and acres of cheap,
uninhabited land. And screw the birds. If they can't adapt to a small
change like that they won't be in existance very long anyways. Does
anybody miss the Dodo? Didn't think so.
giant016
I don't trust the politicians from either side and both are responsible for
the high prices, but I think a conservative approach would be better.
I'm not saying that oil executives play no part in it but supposing that
they are not withholding information from the public/obeying the laws, I
doubt they can do much to lower prices. I don't really know anything about
economics, but there are speculators and stuff that can inflate the price.
chris_knows
Honestly, in the end I think speculators are a good thing. They can
predict supply and demand far enough ahead. Let's say it looks like in
August prices will be $5 a gallon. Speculators rise the price a little,
but not to $5. This softens the blow, both when gas prices spike (although
with speculators i doesn't really spike so sharply) and dip. If gas had
gone from $2 to $4 here in the states over a few months, the economy would
have been crippled. Now we're just a little black and blue.
I honestly don't know who to believe about the companies not having control
over the prices. Demand has skyrocketed yet we have pretty much the same
refining capabilities as we did 30 years ago if I'm not mistaken. No doubt
people don't want refineries in their backyards, but there is plenty of
bare land out there where jobs could be created. Further, with such large
profits I'm sure oil companies could pay the area cities and towns a hefty
sum to let them build in the area. Or at least stop taking tax cuts and
give the money back. I know it sounds crazy, especially seeing as
taxpayers wouldn't voluntarily bail out a failing oil company, but to act
like their hands are tied seems too much for me. It's not the capitalist
way, but I'd say the right thing to do would be to say that any money paid
over $100 a barrel will be given back to the gov, or put into alternative
fuel research.:2cents:
I don't really know what a Conservative approach VS a Dem approach would be
in this case.
Edit: Unless by conservtive approach you mean completely unregulated.
I'll disagree that it's the best approach on this case as OPEC is pretty
much a monopoly with no competition. I'm all for free unregulated markets
when there's competition, but in a capitalist society when there's no real
competition I see it as unrealistic and dangerous. Normaly I fall on the
conservative side as well and say the gov needs to step the hell out of
business, but with things such as natual resources it's too tempting to
dominate the entire market knowing people can't boycott your goods even if
you're way out of line.
giant016
Oil companies aren't making much more in profits (percentage-wise) today,
than they did a decade ago. Also, something like half of retirement funds
are tied to oil companies, so cutting their profits would mean less
retirement money for seniors. Taxing them would provide more money, but
then they would want to raise their prices to make up for the lost
profits.
I suppose by conservative approach I meant drill anywhere. Some regulation
is good for the market, but we need more oil refineries and more drilling
permits. Government should still have some control, though.
I agree on the competition. In Ontario, only the government sells alcohol
(besides beer), and since nobody else can, they raise the prices by like
25%.
chris_knows
If their profit margin has stayed exactly the same while prices have
doubled over the last 4 years, that means their profits have doubled. If
it were for big screen TV's I'd say fine, let them be. This is for
somehting that has become a neccessity in the U.S. It's one of the most
unethical things I have seen corporations do, if indeed it is their fault.
I'm guessing the majority of people investing in stocks for retirement are
buying mutual funds. If a few stocks (oil companies) break even or even
bomb, they're still fairly well covered as mutual funds for retirement
should be slow but steady movers with great diversity, even for mutual
funds.
Further, it's hard to say that these gas prices aren't greatly hurting our
economy. Take me for example, I work part time at a dog boarding kennel
wher people board their dogs when they go on vacation. I have senority
there, and even my hours got cut. There is a very noticable difference in
business from the last summer. Actually, it was a growing business, I've
been there for over seven years, and have noticed a steady increase in
business. Except this summer. Since I'm making less I'm going on less
trips, trying to save $ for the fall when I'll be working fewer hours yet
still have to pay $4-$5 for gas. It's a spiraling effect where I'm making
less, so I'm buying less, so other people that would be making money off me
aren't, and so on. Luckily I do some online selling stuff, but even that
seems to have cooled a bit.
Back to the stocks, most retirement funds are likely to have stock in GM
and Ford, who are getting crushed by the gas prices seeing as their only
popular products are trucks and SUVs. And again, the entire market is
down, so even if stocks in oil companies are up 30% because the oil
companies are making a lot, the other 90% of people's stocks in their
mutual funds are down because of it.
And yeah, the LCBO sucks. I don't recall the prices being too bad, but the
selection was weak and every store was the same. I suppose it's worth it
since you can buy two years earlier though.
giant016
K, we can agree, pretty much lol.
Back on topic, hybrids are a good segue vehicle, but I think hydrogen
vehicles have a more promising future.
chris_knows
