Toyota and EDF power up for plug-in cars

By John Reed
Published: September 11 2008 01:35

Toyota on Wednesday launched the UK’s first trial of a plug-in hybrid car in a tie-up with EDF Energy, which will build a network of charging points where drivers top up their batteries.
The car, seen as a successor to the Prius petrol-electric hybrid, will be tested in EDF’s company fleet as Toyota works through the practical issues surrounding plug-in cars, including the availability of recharging infrastructure.

EDF will set up 40 charging posts, dubbed “juice points”, in the UK, mostly in London. The car will be equipped with an on-board charging and invoicing system allowing consumers to pay for the power.
The launch will make Britain Europe’s second country where Toyota and Electricité de France are testing plug-in cars. Last autumn the power group began working with Toyota on recharging points for cars in France and the companies say they want to branch out further.
However, Peter Hofman, sustainable future director at EDF Energy, said the group was working with “a number of vehicle manufacturers” on recharging points, not just Toyota.
The UK is Toyota’s biggest market in Europe for its Prius model, accounting for 27 per cent of the hybrid’s total sales on the Continent.
John Hutton, secretary of state for business, who attended the launch in London’s Hyde Park, hoped the vehicle would “lead us one step closer to making our ambition of becoming a number one location for low-carbon vehicles”.
In July Boris Johnson, London’s mayor, said he wanted to almost treble the capital’s number of charging points to 100.
Toyota dominates the small but fast-growing global market for hybrids, cars with internal combustion engines that manage short trips via a battery recharged from power released by the car. Plug-in cars, such as Toyota’s test vehicle, promise longer electric-only driving ranges than current-generation hybrids.
Early plug-in cars produced by Toyota, General Motors and other manufacturers in the 1990s flopped commercially because of their short driving ranges, long charging times and the dearth of recharging points. Carmakers are now co-operating to build this infrastructure with utility companies, which see demand from plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles as a source of future revenue.
Last week Daimler, which makes the Mercedes-Benz and Smart marques, announced plans to work with Germany’s RWE on launching 500 charging points for electric vehicles in Berlin by the end of 2009. Daimler is road-testing about 100 plug-in Smarts in London, which unlike Toyota’s car will be purely electric with no back-up from a conventional petrol engine.
Toyota’s plug-in, equipped with a nickel metal hydride battery like that in the current Prius, will have an electric-only driving range of about 10km, or 6.2 miles.
The Japanese company, like other carmakers including GM, Renault/Nissan, and Mitsubishi, is developing next-generation lithium-ion batteries that promise longer electric driving ranges.
GM says its Chevrolet Volt, which is due to launch in late 2010 equipped with lithium-ion batteries, will have a 40-mile electric-only driving range, enough to get most commuters to and from work.
The Toyota plug-in car will be driven by about 50 EDF Energy employees to determine how the vehicle performs in different urban environments and under various driving patterns.
The trial will cover Greater London for at least one year.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008