Toyota sticks with nickel after 3-year lithium Prius test
- Source: Gasgoo.com
- [15:21 September 14 2009]
- Comments
Toyota Motor Corp., the biggest seller of hybrid cars, is sticking with nickel as the preferred battery material for the vehicles after three years of secretly testing Prius hatchbacks with lithium-ion packs.
Toyota last month ended road tests of 126 Priuses in the US, Japan and Europe that began in 2006, company spokeswoman Jana Hartline said in an interview. Details of the program, in which the cars' nickel metal hydride batteries were replaced with lithium models, haven't been released.
Automakers including Toyota are about to bring out cars powered completely or in part by lithium-ion batteries, which can hold twice the energy of nickel packs and cost more to make. While Toyota's lithium batteries performed well and provided "small" improvements in fuel economy because of lighter weight, the benefits didn't justify the higher cost, said Kazuo Tojima, the carmaker's senior staff engineer for batteries.
The Toyota City, Japan-based company's tests showed "durability, stability and safety are assured for a conventional hybrid," Tojima said.
The tests appear to be among the most thorough done by companies planning to introduce the batteries, said Menahem Anderman, president of consulting firm Advanced Automotive Batteries in Oregon House, California.
"We now know that a lithium-ion battery can work; that's not really the question," he said. "Cost is critical, and we still don't know enough about long-term durability."
Plug-in Prius
Toyota has sold more than 2 million hybrid cars and light trucks worldwide since introducing the Prius in Japan in 1997, almost all using nickel metal. The automaker hasn't announced plans to sell standard hybrids with lithium batteries in the US.
This year, Toyota will begin delivering test fleets in the US, Japan and Europe consisting of plug-in Priuses that can run 12 miles (19 kilometers) solely on lithium-ion battery power after charging at an electrical outlet. The car is being shown this week at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
