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Toyota is to undertake European road
trials of an electric-powered version of its iQ city car from next year.
It announced the study this week in a progress report on its product and
technology strategies to use electricity and alternative power sources
to develop low carbon vehicles that are less dependant on fossil fuels.
iQ EV is scheduled to go on sale in the
USA in 2012, but Toyota is looking at its potential in other markets,
including Europe, Japan and China.
The news of Toyota’s further
development of its EV programme follows the unveiling this week of the
RAV4 EV at the Los Angeles Auto Show, a new model produced in
partnership with electric vehicle specialists Tesla Motors that will
also be sold in the US from 2012.
Toyota plans to launch 11 hybrid
vehicles by the end of 2012, including both all-new and re-designed
models. It has also confirmed that Prius Plug-in Hybrid, currently
undergoing a demonstration programme in London and other worldwide
locations, will go on sale in Europe, Japan and the USA from early 2012.
Toyota is expecting to sell around 50,000 cars a year, the majority in
its home market.
Toyota continues to advance its
development of fuel cell hybrid technology and expects to introduce a
saloon fuel cell hybrid vehicle (FCHV) in around 2015 in markets where a
fuel supply infrastructure has been established – expected to be Europe,
Japan and North America.
The performance of the secondary
batteries used in EVs and hybrid vehicles is central to their ability to
deliver improved driving range, acceleration, power economy and ease of
recharging. Toyota is investing in research and development of
next-generation batteries, beyond the lithium-ion type featured in Prius
Plug-in, to bring about the big advances in performance that will be
needed for electric-powered eco-cars to succeed in the mass market. In
January this year it set up a new division to study next-generation
battery production, with a team of around 100 researchers.
The options being investigated include
solid-state batteries, where Toyota has made progress in overcoming
performance and packaging issues, and metal-air batteries which have the
potential to provide a much higher energy density than the lithium-ion
type.
Toyota believes eco-cars can only have
a positive impact on the environment if they are widely used. At the
same time as it explores alternative power systems, it is continuing to
improve the efficiency of its internal combustion engines, which account
for the majority of sales, while raising performance, reducing costs and
expanding the range available.
www.toyotaiqcentral.com
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