Toyota and French power giant roll out PHV trial

In an important preparatory move towards large-scale commercialisation in the future, Toyota and Électricité de France (EDF), France's major power supplier, have announced a joint program to roll out 100 plug-in hybrid Priuses and an embryonic charging infrastructure.

Starting at the end of 2009, the three-year program will see Toyota leasing about 100 Prius PHVs equipped with lithium-ion batteries to a number of companies around the city of Strasbourg.

In support of the fleet, EDF subsidiary Electricité de Strasbourg will roll out a charging network of several hundred plug-in points at users' homes, at work and in public places such as car parks. The plugs are designed not just to recharge the vehicles but to identify them, communicate with them and generate invoices.

The program is designed to bring benefits to every stakeholder. Toyota gets a chance to evaluate the Prius PHV's real-life performance day to day; EDF gets to evaluate several options in determining the most effective public charging infrastructure, and consumers get a first decent look at the motoring matrix of the near future.

This project came to fruition with the help of financial grants from the Research Fund managed by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency ADEME.

It is but one of a series of PHV trials going back to 2007 in France. At the Mitsubishi i-MiEV media launch earlier this week (more here), it was revealed that Paris already boasts 200 recharging stations and across the channel, London has 20 so far. Toyota expanded its PHV trials into the UK last year, and plans to roll out in Japan and the US by the end of 2009.