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Tag Archives: toyota prius

Volt Charges Ahead – In Outlets Beginning in 2010

GM announced this week that the Chevy Volt is still on schedule for a November 2010 release.   The new plug in hybrid (PHEV) is expected to sell for between $30,000 to $40,000.  However, GM only expects to be able to ramp production to 100,000 a year by 2012.  As a comparison, the Toyota Prius is selling at a rate of almost a quarter a million per year. 

While GM works hard to solve battery delays, cooling issues, and other unexpected issues, other companies are also speeding up their own PHEV development.  Toyota has announced a follow-on Prius PHEV that will be released in 2009 using standard NiMh battery packs, but will follow-up with Li-ion packs in 2010.  Ford has basically given up and said that they hope to have a PHEV available in 5 years.

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Test Prius PHEV Proves Too Hot

Prius PHEV goes up in Flames
Prius PHEV goes up in Flames

On June 7, 2008, one of the Toyota Prius’s in Central Electric Power Cooperative in Columbia, SC PHEV test program was destroyed by fire.  The Prius was outfitted with the Hybrids-Plus PHEV15 conversion kit which uses A123 Li-ion battery packs.  At this time, investigators have ruled out the batteries as having been the source of the fire, and fire officials are claiming that they performed well during the event and showed little damage. 

The fire occurred during routine highway driving. The upholstery in the back seat appeared to have caught on fire. When noticed, the driver pulled over and exited the car.  Unfortunately there was no data logger installed, so the exact cause of the fire may never be known.