Automakers Showcase Electric Strategies

February 4, 2009

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At the Washington Auto Show, automakers are parading their commitments to quickly bring electric hybrid and all-electric vehicles to market as early as next year. But some question the government’s goal of having 1 million plug-ins on the road by 2015, the Detroit News reports.

Bill Reinert, national manager of Toyota Motor Corp.’s advanced technology group, told Detroit News that it took Toyota nearly 11 years to sell 1 million Prius vehicles worldwide. Reinert says having that many plug-ins would require a faster adoption that the Prius.

Toyota says it will have a plug-in hybrid Prius for fleet customers by 2009.

Ford plans to bring a plug-in electric hybrid vehicle to market in 2012. The company is also pursuing a pure battery-powered electric vehicle, which will be limited to a range of 100 miles on a single charge.

Starting in late 2010, Audi will offer a hybrid version of its Q5 premium SUV in the U.S., Wolfgan Hatz, head of powertrain development for the Volkswagen group told Automotive News (subscription required).

At the show, General Motors Corp. announced that it was working with the municipalities of San Francisco and the Washington, D.C., metro area to speed adoption of electric cars and build an infrastructure to support them, reported CNET news.

President Barack Obama recently ordered the EPA to reconsider its earlier ban on California’s tough GHG emissions. The result is likely to end in a compromise that automakers and environmentalists can live with.

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Reader Comments

Why give a choice? It’s either electric cars or the bus. If you require a vehicle for long trips, 150 miles or greater, you require a license for this and this allows you to buy hybrid gas/electric. Or you rent one when you need it for long trips. Change the rules, and the players will adapt. Leave the rules the same, the outcome will not change.

Iain | February 5th, 2009

Ummm… the “low” adoption rate of the Prius was because they were not making them fast enough. I was on a waiting list forever and ended up getting a Civic Hybrid because I didn’t want to wait forever. If all the car manufactures would make hybrids, gas-electric and electric cars in the same quantity as the other models people would buy them, especially since if they made them in the same quantities the prices would come down near the same levels too. (Today’s Hybrids are a waste BTW and we shouldn’t be wasting time on them. They just make people think they are solving a problem, a 10% increase in efficiency doesn’t do anything for the problem, even 20%, we have to get off oil period).

Jeff Hall | February 19th, 2009