Toyota Plug-In Prius (PHEV) Press Release

big auto has these projects like the volt just so that they can take government subsidies and research dollars while they make their gas burning offerings more attractive both in marketing and inefficient technologies. they continually buy out researchers that have viable competing technologies and bury them or make them inefficient. it's just smart business practices to protect their profit margins.

also keep in mind if you convert most vehicles to PHEV the energy and resources required to manufacture the batteries becomes just as much of a problem as any other source of pollution. li-ion batteries do not last forever, and need to be broken down and recycled for re-use which also takes tons of energy. also li-ion packs wear out over time so your drive time shrinks over the life of the car.

While it's true that recycling and manufacturing take energy, the vast majority of the energy usage (and potential energy savings) is in the "use" phase.

Look at it this way, does the process of manufacturing an electric generator require more electricity than that generator will produce in its lifetime? Of course not!

Likewise, producing an engine for a car has an upfront energy cost, but the energy (and potential savings) of using that car will be while it is driven.

There is a complete Li-ion conversion kit available on ebay under $2000. Search ebay with keyword phev.

whats the use of plug in if your not going to increase the battery capacity and if you do your going to raise they price which consumers will object

yes you can put a lithium pack on a prius with 200 mile range and plug it in but that would raise they price beyond to what average consumers will afford

all existing plug in vehicles right now on the market is over $40K ~$109K

you want it pay for it

man, ur stupid. all u do is buy a prius, the 2010 one. then u buy the plug in kit and install it. u can do this with all hybrid cars. dont by it directly from the car manufacture, thats why ur paying so damn much

i would argue that if you spent $2000 or more on a conversion kit, you would still have to spend a lot of time, energy and resources to get the conversion done. you'd also run the risk of fucking up your car. it's not something the average consumer is going to do to a car worth $30k, and probably isn't even worthwhile in terms of money saved over the time you drive it.

The plug-in wasn't anticipated for the 2010 model. Toyota doesn't think their technology is ready yet, and Chevy is probably going to be the first to make it to market with their Volt, which isn't expected till 2011.

the auto industry had plug in electric cars around 1900, so for big auto to say their tech isn't ready is just laughable. if they wanted all electric vehicles in the showrooms they would be in the showrooms. big auto and big oil are in bed together, and they will keep delaying these technologies, or making them uncompetitive with their gas burning products as long as the possibly can, imho.

There's some truth to that. GM, after discontinuing its EV1 electric car program, ended up selling their battery patents to Chevron, who of course just wanted them to ensure that they wouldn't be used to create cars that don't need gas to run.