Toyota to start lithium-ion battery output in 2009

Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) said on Wednesday its battery joint venture with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co (6752.T) will start full-scale production of lithium-ion batteries in 2010 as it aims to roll out more electricity-driven cars over the next few years.

Toyota, the world's top maker of gasoline-electric hybrids, is keen to bring such vehicles into the mainstream by lowering their cost premium as more consumers around the world demand higher fuel economy amid record-high energy prices.

The battery venture, called Panasonic EV Energy Co, currently produces nickel-metal hydride batteries used in Toyota's hybrid vehicles, and is building two new factories to bring annual output capacity to 1 million batteries around 2010.

Toyota, which put the world's first hybrid car on the road in 1997, has a goal of reaching global annual sales of 1 million hybrid vehicles soon after 2010, more than double what it sold last year. It has sold a total 1.5 million hybrids since the first Prius hybrid was launched over a decade ago.

Many big automakers are working in partnership with battery makers on developing vehicle-use lithium-ion batteries, which can store more energy in smaller, lighter packages and are seen as crucial for extending the cruising distance of purely electric vehicles. Such batteries are commonly used in laptops and mobile phones.

Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, also said in a statement it would establish a battery research department later this month to develop next-generation batteries that would outperform lithium-ion batteries.

Domestic rivals Nissan Motor Co (7201.T) and Mitsubishi Motors Corp (7211.T) have joint ventures with the NEC Corp (6701.T) group and GS Yuasa Corp (6674.T), respectively, to mass-produce lithium-ion batteries from next year.

Toyota has said it will use lithium-ion batteries in a rechargeable, plug-in hybrid vehicle due for launch for fleet customers in Japan, the United States and Europe by 2010.

"We plan to use both nickel-metal hydride and lithium-ion batteries, choosing the appropriate option depending on the vehicle," President Katsuaki Watanabe told a news conference to outline Toyota's environmental activities.

Toyota has not said if it will use lithium-ion batteries in its third-generation Prius, widely expected for launch some time next year, but the start of full-scale battery production suggests it could be used soon.

To help reach its hybrid sales goal, Toyota plans to start production of its Camry hybrid model in Thailand and Australia over the next two years, it said on Tuesday.

Toyota is due to showcase new hybrid-only models, under both the Toyota and Lexus luxury brands, at the next Detroit auto show in January.

(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Michael Watson)

Japanese Automaker, U.S. Firm Team Up To Convert Cars to Electric Power

by Liu Enming, Voice of America

"Our car is very different from a gasoline car in that it uses no gasoline, it's all electric, lithium battery and with a proprietary battery management system by Hybrid Technologies," Ron Cerven said.

Ron Cerven is a project development engineer at Hybrid Technologies, a research and development company focusing on electric vehicles powered by lithium batteries. The cars, like the Toyota Yaris, look like any other until you peek under the hood. Inside, the gas-powered engine has been replaced by a powerful electric motor that is powered by a stack of lithium batteries.

In the company's plant in Morrisville, North Carolina, many familiar car models are being transformed into electric vehicles: The Toyota Yaris, Chrysler PT Cruiser and the SmartCar.

Cerven says the electric cars offer consumers a brand-new driving experience. "The first time you ever drive an electric car, (you notice) how much road noise you hear from tires and stuff," Cerven said.

"That's because you are not used to, even though you don't realize the exhaust isn't very loud or the gasoline motor isn't very loud, you don't realize that actually it is. Very smooth, very quiet, they take off real smooth, they accelerate. One thing that an electric motor has is a very large torque band."

Cerven says not only do the cars save gas — they are also low-maintenance. "Maintenance-wise, the majority of the stuff we took out is what needed to be maintenanced. You have no spark plugs, no oil filters, and no air filters, all that stuff went away. So your maintenance costs are very much lower than what [you] originally had," he said.

Cervan says the cars powered by Hybrid Technologies are a big leap forward from earlier electric vehicles.

Cervan says, "I think in the past, the electric vehicle ware held back by the batteries. Battery technology in the past 10 years has come a long way. We were running at about 600 pounds [72 kilograms] of batteries to get the same mileage we use to be running at about 2,400 pounds [1088 kilograms] of batteries," he said.

Cerven says lithium powered cars are just as powerful as vehicles fueled by gas. For example, with ten packs of these lithium batteries, a PT Cruiser can accelerate to 100 kilometers per hour in seven point two seconds, rivaling the performance of a six cylinder, gas-powered car. A six-hour electrical charge provides enough power to drive the car nearly 200 kilometers.

Pointing to vehicle that looks like an updated Jeep, Ceven says, "this one was designed for military. To fit in an aircraft it has a very small cargo area."

"This vehicle is very fast and agile, 87 miles an hour [140 kilometers per hour] almost 200 miles [320 kilometers] on the range but fits in a five foot-by-five foot [1.5 meter by 1.5 meter] container. So it's very easy to deploy."

These electric vehicles are not cheap. But Linda Hill, the marketing and public relations manager of Hybrid Technologies, believes after factoring in the gas and maintenance savings over seven to 10 years, she believes the vehicles are competitive.

Hill says, "We want to make lithium powered, electric-powered vehicles [a part of the] mainstream in America, moving towards more electric-powered vehicles, electric-powered products, and electric-powered energy."

To watch a video of these cars, click here.

Reprinted from Voice of America, a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts more than 1,000 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 115 million people.