Archive for Hybrids, Electric vehicles, fuel cells, alternative fuel

Sales for the Toyota Prius in April 2006 has dropped nearly 25% compared to April 2005, the same time period last year. Toyota sold 7,500 Toyota Prius hybrids in April 2006, compared to 11,345 in April 2005. Sales for the year 2006 to date is also 10% less compared to the same time period in 2005.

This drop has been touted as a reflection of the public’s declining interest in hybrid cars (Carlos Ghosn would be smug about this), but Toyota says the drop in sales is because of a production shortage, nota decline in the vehicle’s popularity.

Jim Lentz, group vice president and general manager for Toyota said to the media “If I had the vehicles, we could do 250,000 this year. We’re going to end April with just a four-day supply of Prius, and I don’t see that situation improving until later this year“. Toyota’s estimate of 250,000 is more than double the amount of Toyota Prius hybrids sold in 2005 (107,897 cars) but looks like whether it’s production issues or lower popularity, the figure won’t be achieved this year.

Hybrid sales could be seeing a sales slowdown and Carlos Ghosn was one of the very few people who had enough foresight to see this during the days of the hybrid hype where everyone was jumping onto the bandwagon.

Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Nissan and Renault said it was far too early to invest in hybrid technology, because costs outweighed the benefits for both consumers and manufacturers. The fuel savings of a hybrid vehicle did not justify the fuel savings incurred.

In fact, on highways a hybrid car like the Toyota Prius might actually use more fuel than a normal car. This is because on highway speeds, the Toyota Prius runs on full gasoline as the ECU detects highway long journeys might drain the battery too fast as the time for journeys are usually long and there is very little opportunity for regenerative braking. Since the Toyota Prius gasoline engine is quite tiny relatively, it actually has to work harder and use more fuel compared to a conventional powered vehicle with a larger more potent engine.

“At least admit I was the only guy saying, Watch out, the consumer decides, don’t be excited about it. I have some kind of satisfaction of being a little bit right on this one.” said Carlos Ghosn at the New York Auto Show. He says diesel or ethanol vehicle holds more promise for now, but he is not abandoning the idea of hybrids completely. He just thinks it’s not time yet. Nissan is still on track to release a hybrid version of the Nissan Altima this year.

J.D. Power and Associates predicts hybrids will make up 1.5 percent of automobile sales in 2006 and will grow to nearly 5 percent by 2013.

A group of students from the West Philadelphia High School’s Academy for Automotive and Mechanical Engineering have come up with a prototype hybrid car that runs on soybean fuel. And it’s a sports car, which delivers more horsepower than entry-level Porsches, but yet gets mileage similiar to the Toyota Prius. How on earth?

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Toyota Motor Corp Katsuaki Watanabe said Toyota may consider setting up hybrid vehicle plants somewhere in the ASEAN region if there is sufficient demand for hybrid vehicles in the region.

Although Toyota already has a big presence in the Thai automotive industry, it could also choose Malaysia as it’s hybrid manufacturing hub. Watanabe said it depends on where the demand is coming from. There are no immediately plans, and hybrid vehicle manufacturing requires sophisticated machines.

Toyota plans accumulated sales of 1 million hybrid vehicles, running on the road by 2010. It is already half way there, with sales of 470,000 so far since the introduction of the Toyota Prius in 1997.

Source: StarBiz

Toyota is going the hybrid path after it’s hybrid models especially the Toyota Prius have shown tremendous success.

Toyota Prius

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This is an interesting experiment by Mitsubishi, similiar to Michelin’s Active Wheel technology.

Click here to read the rest of Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MIEV

The Toyota Prius has been a hit especially in the USA where the people love it for it’s excellent fuel economy and the tax breaks that comes with using a hybrid vehicle.

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Fuel efficiency and less pollution is all the rage these days with cars. Honda brings us their updated IMA (Integrated Motor Assist) system to the 2006 Civic Hybrid.

The Hybrid i-VTEC system provides three stages of valve timing which are the low-rpm, high-rpm and cylinder idle mode. The IMA system is an improved version over the previous version, with battery output increased by 30% while retaining the same size. The electric motor employs coils with high-density windings and high-performance magnets to attain that power. The battery is recharged using regenerative hydraulic braking.

Click here to read the rest of Honda Hybrid i-VTEC System

Tun Dr. Mahathir has revealed in the papers today what’s coming up in Proton’s road map. He says that Proton plans to develop a gas-electric car in 5 years time. Proton has supposedly been working on the project for the past 5 years.

The car will be powered by a hybrid powerplant that runs on an electric motor backed up by a small gasoline engine.

Toyota has done pretty well in the US with it’s Toyota Prius hybrid vehicle.

Mahathir did not say whether Proton would be developing it’s own Campro gas-electric, or sourcing the technology from another manufacturer.

Right, why not get the cam-profiling and variable intake manifold in the Campro working first?

Source: StarBiz