Featured Toyota announces new hybrid battery: lower cost and higher performance

Should be available in 5 or 10 years

 

The articles are saying the battery is developed, but Toyota's release says they will develop one.

This is for hybrids, not plug ins.

I'm guessing Toyota has accepted that NiMH is costing them too much, though the release says nothing about chemistry. With hybrids having different needs in a battery than plug ins, a more reasonable guess is that the major battery companies are too busy with developing for plug ins, and Toyota needs to do it themselves if they want a better battery for their hybrids.

 

Yes ~ the operative words in the title ;
to "Jointly Develop New Battery"
Developing is not "put into production"
Maybe some day.
.

 

Pretty close, from what I read from the below chart, 80 miles EV would cover 90% of drivers and 50 miles EV would cover roughly 75%.


These numbers appear consistent with other resources:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/2012-01-0489-SAE-published.pdf
On the distribution of individual daily driving distances - ScienceDirect

Short answer: somewhere in the 50-100 mi range seems to be the sweet spot for a PHEV if Toyota (or other manufacturers) can keep the price reasonable.

 

I don't think it will take that long, but lithium chemistries have big advantages in terms of cost, size, and usable energy compared to toyota's nimh which has been pushed very close to as far as it will go.

You can even get less expensive if you liquid condition, and since a hybrid already has a radiator there may be an inexpensive way to do this and and eliminate the need to package where a fan can take away heat.

They probably have 2 or 3 possible batteries developed but need to test in real world to see how they do in heat and cold, etc. They already have some lithium in hybrids, but they need to get it more right (lower cost) before rolling it out to over a million vehicles a year.

 

That matches my 2014 BMW i3-REx, 72 mi EV, versus the 2017 Prius Prime, 25 mi EV, that we traded in for our Model 3.

Bob Wilson

 

I understand that the Escape and Explorer hybrids are liquid cooled.

 

Nice! That should bring the price down vs rav4.
I’ll be taking a serious look

 

I would love to get just 50 miles electric on my phev but I'm not everyone and probably not indicative of the market at large.

 

Probably not a concern for you, but the Escape PHEV won't have AWD.

And to be clear, Ford's new non-plug in hybrids use liquid cooling.

edit: it will start at $34,235 with destination.
2020 Ford Escape Plug-In Priced From $34,235 - CarsDirect

 

I do too so I got one: Honda Clarity PHEV.

 

I don’t need 50 miles, but the storage space would be welcome

Escape is a nice looking vehicle too

 

Most PHEVs should have less than 50 miles of EV range in order to make them price competitive. Many people can do over 80% of their drive purely on electricity with just 40-mile electric range. Heck, for a good percent of people, 30 miles is more than enough. If people cannot do majority of their driving in a PHEV with less than 50 miles of electric range, they should consider other options. Making PHEVs more expensive for everybody and increasing the barrier to entry is not the solution. Even the graph you posted shows that 48% of the time, people drive fewer than 30 miles in a day. PHEVs are for those people.

 

I think the new RAV4H still has NiMH.

 

The second article states: "The companies said they will release information such as target vehicle models..."

I assume they are referring to "future models". I would be astounded if they offered the new technology as retrofit kits for existing hybrids. But I suppose we will have to wait for 3rd part DIY sources for that.

 

The tech is less expensive. They won't retrofit, but if they get production up, they will simply switch batteries (new one is smaller and lighter) as a model update.

 

We'll have to agree to disagree. I've had a 25 mi EV range Prius Prime and 72 mi EV range BMW i3-REx. The Prius was traded in for a Tesla Model 3.

Bob Wilson

 

I see no disagreement. 25 miles of EV range did not work for you so you went with something with a longer EV range. A new i3-REx is out of reach for most people AND road trips are less convenient then if you had a regular hybrid or a PHEV.

 

I think you guys actually agree. Just like 72 miles was too short of EV range to be useful for you, you bought a Model 3. I think he is implying that if you virtually never use the ICE, then why have it in the car anyway.