REPORT: Battery bottleneck holding up Prius sales

Jeremy Korzeniewski — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 08:26:00 EST

2010 Toyota Prius - Click above for high-res image gallery

Toyota has a major hit on its hands with the redesigned 2010 Prius. While that's surely great news for the brand (which is otherwise posting huge sales declines along with nearly every other automaker in the world) it's reportedly exposing the availability of batteries as the biggest bottleneck to production. According to Takahiko Ijichi, Toyota senior managing director:

The new Prius model has been excessively popular, inconveniencing some of our customers, and the factories are working overtime at full capacity... Unfortunately, the batteries are not catching up with demand. Production of the batteries needs to be increased in order for our production to go up.

Panasonic EV Energy, the company that supplies nickel metal hydride batteries to Toyota for the Prius, can produce a maximum of 500,000 packs per year. Plans are in place to expand production capabilities, but that's not going to help eager Prius customers get their new hybrids any faster in the short term.

In related news, Ijichi once again confirmed that Toyota does indeed make money on the Prius, saying, "In terms of the Toyota lineup, I'd say it's probably in the midlevel of profit."

Gallery: 2010 Toyota Prius

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

REPORT: Battery bottleneck holding up Prius sales originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 06 Aug 2009 08:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toyota to build hybrid batteries in North America

Jonathon Ramsey — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:33:00 EST

Filed under: Budget, Hybrid, Green, Plants/Manufacturing, Toyota

Even with the $5,000 difference between the Prius and non-hybrid Toyotas, there was a time when Toyota lost money on the car. Even when the car entered the black, and even though they halved the cost of the hybrid system from one generation to the next, Toyota still didn't make the margins on it that they did with their go-to sedans. Yet with plans to start making batteries for the Hybrid Synergy Drive in the U.S., Toyota says it should be able to halve costs again, and bring the next-gen Prius profit to near parity with the Corolla.

Toyota doesn't know where or when it will start building batteries in the States. The company says "it's difficult to make the main parts of batteries outside of Japan," but didn't explain why that was the case. From 2010, the Prius will be manufactured in Toyota's Mississippi plant, however, that doesn't mean the battery plant will be nearby.

Toyota moved up the date to offer the plug-in Priuses to government and fleet operators to the end of 2009. Right now, Toyota says the Prius gets 13 miles on battery power alone. If the plug-in Prius does arrive in a year or so, and with a substantially higher range -- and that is a ginormous "if" -- then it has a chance of upstaging the Chevy Volt, which appears to be what Toyota is aiming for.

[Source: Automotive News, sub req'd]

Toyota to build hybrid batteries in North America originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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