Is Toyota confident in the continued success of their hybrid gas-electric car models? Yes. In fact, so confident they are investing $192 million to construct a plant in central Japan, which will build the nickel-metal hydride batteries (or NiMH batteries) used in the Prius.
Besides gas electric hybrids like the Prius and the Honda Insight, NiMH battery technology is used in many consumer electronics as well as current models of electric plug-in vehicles such as the Honda EV Plus and the Ford Ranger EV.
Japan's top business daily, The Nikkei, reported that Toyota was also building a plant to make lithium-ion batteries, which could be used in future lower emissions cars. However, Toyota's spokesman Paul Nolasco denied such a claim. Lithium-ion batteries power many laptops and are smaller than the nickel-metal hydride batteries. Toyota says that the lithium-ion batteries may be used in future plug-in hybrids.
On sale for more than a decade now, the Prius hit 1 million in cumulative sales in May 2008. Toyota has been watching its hybrid sales grow steadily and projects selling 1 million units a year by 2010.
According to Toyota, the Prius averages 48 mpg in the city and 45 mpg highway with its Hybrid Synergy Drive technology, but it's not just the pretty numbers that led to its monumental success. Toyota successfully branded the Prius as the face of hybrid car technology (just observe how many characters on TV drive a Prius now) and in doing so made it the best selling gas-electric in the United States.
With hybrid sales increasing as well as gas prices (Toyota saw a 69 percent increase in Prius sales from 2006 to 2007 according to AAA) everybody is jumping on the wagon. Honda Motor Co. says it will boost hybrid sales to 500,000 after 2010. Nissan will also introduce its original hybrid by 2010. Nissan joins the party late perhaps because they have been focusing on electric vehicles and their hopes of introducing them to the U.S. and Japanese markets in 2010.
Further Reading:
