The race to be the first automaker to launch a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) seems to be getting hot with every passing day. A couple of months ago, we had heard that Toyota’s plans of bringing a plug-in hybrid had been delayed due to problems with Lithium-ion batteries.
The company has decided that the glitches in Lithium ion batteries will not hold up their plans for a PHEV. The next Prius is likely to be the first PHEV in the market, but it will run on nickel metal hydride (NiMh) battery packs.
Prototypes of the Prius are running on NiMh and perhaps even the production version will run on the same until the Li-ion batteries are prepared to do the job. A few units will soon arrive in University of California Irvine and University of California Berkeley for evaluation.
Next generation of the Prius is due in 2009 and is likely to come with NiMh battery packs. The prototype uses battery packs from the current generation Prius; two battery packs have been sandwiched together. This vehicle can run for 7-miles on the battery and get a full recharge in about four hours using a 110-Volt outlet.
A 1.5L inline four from the Prius is also present under the hood. The vehicle is capable of reaching 62mph on batteries alone, thanks to a 50KW motor.
[Source: Popular Mechanics]
