Electric-car Race Steps Up A Gear
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday January 26, 2008
General Motors says its plug-in hybrids will be in showrooms in 2010, but Toyota has some on the road, reports motoring editor Joshua Dowling.
THE world's two biggest car makers, General Motors and Toyota, are in a race to be first with a mass-produced, plug-in electric car.The week after GM executives at the Detroit motor show announced electric cars were "inevitable" in the face of diminishing oil reserves, Toyota trumped its rival by putting journalists behind the wheel of its plug-in hybrid car on the streets of Motown. At the same time, Toyota announced it, too, would introduce a plug-in hybrid car in 2010.Toyota's timing might look like copycatting but the company had been working on this technology before GM disclosed its plans.The third-generation Prius is due late next year but Drive understands the engineering process is too far advanced to include plug-in technology. Instead, to sell alongside the Prius, Toyota will introduce a super-efficient plug-in electric hybrid that will travel further on battery power alone.The size, price and even the number of doors of the new model are yet to be revealed. Meanwhile, Toyota has begun public experiments with plug-in hybrid technology.This year Toyota USA plans to equip up to 400 current model Prius hatches with technology that enables them to recharge in a few hours and have a greater driving range on battery power alone.A standard Prius runs on a combination of petrol and an electric motor and does not need to be recharged. Its average fuel consumption is 4.5 litres/100km, about half that of a medium-sized four-cylinder sedan and about a third of the fuel consumed by a Ford Falcon or Holden Commodore.The modified Prius, with an extra battery in the spare wheel well, can average about 3.3L/100km, Toyota's figures show.Its biggest advantage, however, is that it can travel about 11km on battery power alone, making it ideal for trips to the shops or short drives to work.In a standard Prius the maximum speed under battery power alone is about 30kmh but the plug-in version can reach 100kmh before the petrol engine kicks in.Journalist James R. Healey of USA Today was one of the few who were able to sample a plug-in Prius on a 6km road-test loop at last week's Detroit show.He says driving it is no different to a regular Prius, except the digital display on the dashboard includes a meter showing how far the car has travelled using only battery power and there is a fuel filler on one side of the car and an electric socket on the other."The plug-in, like other Priuses and most hybrids, shimmies when the [petrol] engine kicks in," he reports. "Otherwise, the test car was smooth, quiet and punchy. [A] slight whine is heard from the motor but only because the rest of the car is so quiet. Typical of a hybrid."The plug-in Prius test car is an example of what GM experts call "the gradual electrification of the motor car".As battery technology improves and the driving range of electric vehicles increases, there will be less dependence on petrol power to assist electric cars.An electric-only car may still be 10 years away but cars with a battery-only driving range of between 60km and 80km should be in showrooms within the next five years. The gradual shift will increasingly put pressure on how electricity is generated. In Australia's case, we obtain most of our electricity by burning coal, which is responsible for 48 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions. Passenger cars represent 7 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, Federal Government data shows.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald