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Asahi.com reports that Toyota has applied for permission to begin road testing of a plug-in Prius. They report that it will be a modified 2nd gen using Li ion battery. They say the AER range is 10-13miles. ( a bit shorter than 18.5miles reported elsewhere).

Anyway Li ion for PHEV makes sense.

Good Luck
Andrew

Japanese Link
http://www.asahi.com/business/update/0719/NGY200707180018.html

Asahi.com reports that Toyota has applied for permission to begin road testing of a plug-in Prius. They report that it will be a modified 2nd gen using Li ion battery. They say the AER range is 10-13miles. ( a bit shorter than 18.5miles reported elsewhere).

Anyway Li ion for PHEV makes sense.

Good Luck
Andrew

Japanese Link
http://www.asahi.com/business/update/0719/NGY200707180018.html

Here's a rough translation for those of us who don't read Japanese and want to know what the pretty picture is about. :D

Translated!! (http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=ja_en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.asahi.com%2Fbusiness%2Fupdate%2F0719%2FNGY200707180018.html)

If they need to do testing in the US, I'd like to know where to send my address?:D

You have no chance to survive make your time!


Other than the slight detail of Toyota wanting all my base, I concur that this is a very good thing. I further volunteer my efforts for the southeast quadrant of the country. Gotta do the hot weather testing, right?

That translation is really awful.
Other than the application for permission, this maybe just speculation by Asahi.com

Anyway according to Asahi.com:
They have applied for permission to test a plug-in Prius on public roads around Aichi. They expect that they will obtain this permission within the month. After obtaining real world test data, they plan to be the first to introduce a plug-in. (Certainly on Japanese roads)
They have replaced the NiMH battery with a large format Li-ion battery.(as expected)
After testing they will begin leasing plug-in Prius to judge the feasibility of this approach. (This is very surprising, will they offer Prius2, NHW20 conversions? and may explain why they are down on non-OEM conversions. This would also allow them to check Li ion battery with a limited number of cars)
They report that the all electric range is 15-20km. (It has been reported that the AER range goal for the plug-in Prius for the Japanese market will be 30km. AER for US?)

Speculation in Japan is that the plug-in or gen3 will appear at November Japan Auto show which woul mark the 10th Anniversary of the Prius introduction.

Good Luck
Andrew

Official english version on Asahi.com english site.

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200707200126.html

Andrew

That translation is really awful.


Sorry! :o Thought it might help... but yours is much better.

Hi Andrew:

___With talk of the Prius-III going 30 km and now Prius-II’s with add-on Li-Ion’s, what is going on with Toyota right now and why do they need permission from a transport minister?

___Good Luck

___Wayne

They're playing with my emotions.

if toyota was any smart, the plug-in can be retrofitted at your local toyota dealership. To complement the half a million hybrids that are already out there plus whatever they will manufacture in the future, don't let all those hybrid components go to waste!

Skilled people can overgo the conversion process in around 2 hours, that's as much as two major maintainence items at the dealership, why not?

Hi Andrew:

___With talk of the Prius-III going 30 km and now Prius-II’s with add-on Li-Ion’s, what is going on with Toyota right now and why do they need permission from a transport minister?

___Good Luck

___Wayne

In Japan, as they are making modifications to NHW20 they need permission to drive on public roads. Especially if they are using Li ion batteries. Previously they confirmed that they were testing PHEV on their testing grounds, so now at least they feel it is safe enough to take on the road.
I think they had no intention of doing PHEV for Prius3 but Calcars, AVTA testing (data is sent to OEM for their comments etc.,), large NYSERDA contracts etc., Toyota Americas online customer PHEV survey have put pressure on them. PHEV will also allow them to compete with Full BEVs e.g. Kanagawa Pref. EV program, Mitsubishi iMiEV, Tesla EV

I did read about a Toyota dealer in England, who ordered two PHEV Prius conversions from Amberjac, then sold them to a customer. Talking to local Toyota dealers in Japan a few months ago, they knew about plug-ins and they would ask me about required all electric range.

Good Luck
Andrew

Hi Andrew:

___With the inside line you have, the AER should be just long enough to get you to the top of that mountain climb commute of yours ;)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Actually I am thinking more of a full BEV (e.g. iMiEV 100mile range). I could do my commute (if charge both ways, DOD swings of about 50%) then the PHEV20? could be used by my wife for shopping (should be enough even with excessive AC) as this is usually short range. This would still leave the PHEV for rare long trips >100miles. Gasoline consumption should be less than 1-2tanks per year. I definitely would not buy a HEV only Prius 3 (which is what I told the dealer)

Did not see any test results for PHEV(Division 5?) at Hybridfest
Good Luck
Andrew

Hi Andrew:

___During an interview with an ABC News crew, I stated in no uncertain terms that no matter how well we push the conventional hybrids on the day of the FE Challenge, the PHEV’s would clean our clocks in terms of total fuel use (I know it would have been none with ¾ of us behind the windscreens ;)), lower total cost to drive the 23.x miles, their emissions would have been lower overall, their speeds could have been higher and the ease to do so would have made us look like the stone age drivers that we were. To bad that footage did not go up on the Good Morning America segment :(

___Let us know about the BEV developments as well. I cannot wait to hear what you finally end up with. Hopefully a pre-review vehicle before the public gets their hands on it given your interest ;) And ours!

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Its now official

http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/news/07/0725.html

Good Luck
Andrew

Hi Andrew:

___This is not an ordinary PHEV conversion.

Performance in electric vehicle mode - Maximum vehicle speed - 100km/h

___Jeesshhhh!

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Max speed of 100kph(currently 54kph) in EV only, means no emissions for most tests.
13km AER. NiMH secondary battery. (just looks like it has one extra NiMH battery).
This should be very cheap.

Hmm
Good Luck
Andrew

12.2 amper /hr so that's around an extra 2kilowatt? for a total of 3? i wonder if blended electric mode exsit (only running the engine in its efficent operation and any extra power needed can be all used from the battery since you can charge that back by using the grid) in case you have to travel the extra 10 km or so. Either or this looks very promising and if they somehow bring the life back into the NHW20 models, oh man... i'll be bankrupted for one!

either or, the NHW20 is a good design, just needs better wheels and areo enhancements.

12.2 amper /hr so that's around an extra 2kilowatt? for a total of 3? i wonder if blended electric mode exsit (only running the engine in its efficent operation and any extra power needed can be all used from the battery since you can charge that back by using the grid) in case you have to travel the extra 10 km or so. Either or this looks very promising and if they somehow bring the life back into the NHW20 models, oh man... i'll be bankrupted for one!

either or, the NHW20 is a good design, just needs better wheels and areo enhancements.

Here secondary battery, just means rechargeable therefore it is just two NiMH batteries.

I noted they carefully never mentioned the Prius NHW20, even though the specs are the same except for removing 54kph limit for EV and adding one extra battery.

Anyway its a good start.

Andrew

Some photographs, not very good.
There is also a video on reuters in the science section.
The electric connection looks a bit odd.

http://response.jp/issue/2007/0726/article97317_1.images/149150.html
http://response.jp/issue/2007/0725/article97314_1.images/149140.html
http://response.jp/issue/2007/0725/article97295_1.images/149128.html

Good Luck
Andrew

More pics,

http://response.jp/issue/2007/0725/article97277_1.images/149106.html

Anyway according to Rick on GH, the connector is the conduction type used in the RAV4 L EV. Gasoline on left/electric on right .
Reading back on "In the News" 2006/Mar The Guardian quoted Watanabe T-Pres as saying PHEV would have a AER range of 9miles, so we should not have been surprised.(I have to admit I was hoping for more AER)

Good Luck
Andrew

Added the movie, no sound

http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/tech/environment/phv/conference/index.html

Andrew