1
NEWS
Toyota warns on battery EVs
Plug-ins are part of the mix but at least 10 years away from a competitive rangeAnyone backing battery electric vehicles as the dominant form of vehicle drivetrain has a long time to wait before they generate a range competitive with orthodox cars says Toyota’s chief of hybrid and EV development.
Boiled down to hard numbers that’s at least 10 years to be able to run 500km in a mainstream car without recharging, TMC Deputy chief Officer Satoshi Ogiso estimates.
And even then he warns recharging times will remain far longer than refuelling orthodox liquid-fuelled cars and hydrogen fuel cell EVs such as the sedan Toyota will launch in 2015, for which it is claiming a three minute refuelling time and up to 700km range.
Ogiso, who is best known as the development chief of the petrol-electric Prius, also warns if the takeup of EVs is significant globally, the impact on CO2 outputs emissions will remain insubstantial, while the electricity grid would buckle in many places under the strain.
“We recognise electric vehicles are one of the good solutions but not perfect,” Ogiso said. “Longer term vision we continuously use various energy resources.
“Electric is not the only solution, we continuously have to use liquid fuel and also electricity and also hydrogen. So diversification is very important. That is why we develop both hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicle and also electric vehicle.”
Ogiso said current battery range and recharging limitations made BEVs suitable for short range driving, while hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell EVs would be Toyota's preferred strategy for longer duration driving.
“For [BEV] conventional automobiles passenger car probably more than 10 years needed to get 500km driving range,” Ogiso estimated. “And we should not forget about the charging. Once we expand the capacity of EV it means the charging time becomes longer.”
Ogiso said premium models would reach the range sooner because higher pricing allowed more battery capacity – a point made by Toyota's Bill Reinert four years ago. He used the Tesla Model S as an example; it already has a theoretical range of up to 426km but retails in the US at around $100,000.
The Nissan Leaf, which is the best known mainstream BEV globally, has a claimed range of about 135km and retails in Australia for $39,990. Nissan-Renault's global boss Carlos Ghosn is a BEV cheerleader but even he has had to acknowledge other alternative power sources by adopting a significant hybrid and plug-in hybrid roll-out in coming years.
“From the mass production volume-wise we need extra breakthrough for battery,” Ogiso said.
And he confirmed that was something Toyota was currently working hard on, searching for improvement in lithium-ion batteries, as well as investigating other battery technologies such as lithium-air, solid state and magnesium.
Commercially, Toyota still offers Nickel-metal hydride battery packs in most of its Prius models and other petrol-electric hybrids. It uses compact lithium-ion batteries where storage space is limited.
“Toyota is trying to break through, working very hard to improve next generation beyond lithium-ion battery technology,” Ogiso said. “So if the next breakthrough battery technology comes we will introduce battery electric vehicle.
“But some limitations still occur for the charging and also especially in Japan and some similar countries where nuclear power generation is not available more at this moment. So we should not constantly rely on electricity.”
He painted a scenario where the Prius and Prius c hybrids, which are number one and number two on the Japanese new car sales charts, were BEVs: “Probably is Japanese electric surprise,” he said, meaning the recharging loads would cause blackouts.
Ogiso also made the point that in markets where power production was fossil-fuel based, the advantage of BEVs would be potentially eradicated by the CO2 created in the electricity generation process.
“In Japan well to wheel CO2 pure EV number is a little bit worse than Prius... In France well to wheel by EV is much, much better because there are so many nuclear generation plants. In US worse than Japan and Eastern Europe and China much, much worse.”
Australia, which relies on brown and black coal for much of its power generation, is already rated as the worst CO2 emitter per capita among major western nations.
Read the latest news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site...
Don't forget to register to comment on this article.
Share this article
Written byBruce Newton
See all articlesOur team of independent expert car reviewers and journalistsMeet the team
Stay up to dateBecome a carsales member and get the latest news, reviews and advice straight to your inbox.
Subscribe todayRelated articles
Disclaimer
Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
Contact
Advertise with us
Local marketplaces
International marketplaces
Scan to download the carsales app
Want more info? Here’s our app landing page
App Store and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Inc. Google Play and the Google Play logo
are trademarks of Google LLC.