Toyota may have been on the bleeding edge of developing strong parallel hybrids for production cars, but when it comes to plug-ins they're not quite so enthusiastic. In an interview with Bloomberg, Toyota's Bill Reinert expresses skepticism about the demand for plug-in hybrids.
The main concern seems to be whether consumers would be willing to pay the $5,000 to $10,000 premium that might be necessary for the batteries required for plug-in capability. While that is certainly a valid concern, another reason Toyota is publicly lukewarm to PHEVs might be the difficulties that Toyota's battery supplier Panasonic is having. Panasonic is developing lithium ion batteries based on cobalt oxide chemistry which has high energy density and poor thermal stability.
[Source: Bloomberg]
The main concern seems to be whether consumers would be willing to pay the $5,000 to $10,000 premium that might be necessary for the batteries required for plug-in capability. While that is certainly a valid concern, another reason Toyota is publicly lukewarm to PHEVs might be the difficulties that Toyota's battery supplier Panasonic is having. Panasonic is developing lithium ion batteries based on cobalt oxide chemistry which has high energy density and poor thermal stability.
[Source: Bloomberg]
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