EVWorld says Toyota not about to build plug-in hybrids
Nov 5, 2005 (From the CalCars-News archive)

We encourage you to forward this email to anyone to whom you "wishfully"
told about the possible good news from Toyota.
Or point them to: http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/calcars-news/message/193

Following up on the Inside Fuels and Vehicles story,
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/calcars-news/message/188
EV World Editor Bill Moore is the first journalist to have gotten a denial
from Toyota (unattributably. Meanwhile, we were unable to get any
verification from Pacific Gas & Electric about the very intriguing "utility
owns the batteries" approach. We hope at some point to see that internal
Toyota presentation, significant in and of itself, that makes a good case
for PHEVs' benefits compared to other options.

We were of course hoping to be surprised, but we're not discouraged. We're
making progress on many fronts.

So CalCars, California Electric Transportation Association, Electric Power
Research Institute, American Public Power Association, Advanced Hybrid
Vehicle Development Consortium, Electric Drive Transportation Asosciation,
Plug-In Austin, PlugInAmerica, Electric Auto Association, SetAmericaFree,
Institute for Analysis of Global Security, Committee on the Present Danger,
Securing America's Future Energy, Bluewater Network, Rainforest Action
Network, Senators Hatch, Obama, Bennett, Salazar, other Centrist Coalition
members, and all the other national and local group and individual
supporters of flex-fuel plug-in hybrids will keep doing what we're doing to
make it happen -- first from Toyota or another from automaker.

Here's Bill's report from EVWorld: we strongly urge you all to subscribe
for a mere $29/year to get full access and support this resource.
http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?section=guestblogs&page=blogentry&authorid=12&bl\
ogid=90

My EV World

CONTRIBUTOR: Bill Moore
DATE: Saturday, 05 November 2005

WISHFULLY WISHING FOR PLUG-IN HYBRIDS

Ladies and gentlemen, you are looking at a conundrum wrapped in an enigma
packaged in a puzzle.

Is this or isn’t this Honda’s secret plug-in hybrid demonstrator?

For the uninitiated, the car is the Honda EV+, initially developed for the
now moribund, though not entirely dead Zombie… ah, sorry… Zero Emission
Mandate in California. It was originally powered only by NiMH batteries and
its owners loved it… all 300 or so. Then the program terminated.

Honda took the same car and used it as the test bed for its fuel cell
program, re-christening it the FCX. After all, the electric drive was
already there. All they had to do was take out the batteries and replace
them with a fuel cell stack. It is that car that Jon and Sandy Spallino are
leasing in California.

But look carefully, folks. Do you see the tailpipe?

The photo was taken at Los Angeles International airport on September 10,
2005 by an observant passerby and eventually reached the desk of some folks
at Southern California Edison, who naturally have a keen interest in
electric, plug-in hybrids. Although this is third-hand, allegedly the
person who took the photo looked under the car and traced the tailpipe back
to a gasoline engine.

The only logical conclusion? It has to be a grid-connectable, plug-in
hybrid mule, or at least that was the assumption as the photo raced around
the Internet. It was pointed out that if this was just an extremely rare,
one-of-a-kind gasoline-engine version of the EV+/FCX, then what was it
doing parked in one of LAX’s electric cars-only charging spaces? Also,
what’s with the two (2) fueling doors, one on the front fender and one on
the back? Was the one in the back for the gasoline/petrol tank and the one
in the front for the electric charging port?

A call to Honda eventually cleared up the matter, but before I give you the
resolution, permit me to shift your attention for the moment to another
recent email racing around the Internet, one that created similar furor to
the Honda EV+ photo.

"Inside Fuels and Vehicles" Editor-In-Chief Peter Rohde recently wrote an
article entitled, "Toyota Mulls Dramatic Reversal, May Be Developing
Plug-In Hybrids".

He writes, "After years of emphasizing its hybrid vehicles do not have to
be plugged in, Toyota appears to be on the verge of a dramatic reversal and
may be developing plug-in hybrids, auto industry sources tell Inside Fuels
and Vehicles. But they also say the auto giant is still leery of the
limitations battery technology places on the endeavor".

Speculation ran rampant that Toyota, finally, was going to come out of the
closet and acknowledge what everyone suspected already, that they had been
secretly engineering a plug-in hybrid.

And truth be hold -- according to a confidential source at Toyota who is in
a position to know -- the company has been doing some "mathematical
modeling and investigating some hardware", but stressed that "doesn’t mean
that a commercial launch is in the picture".

Emphasizing that these are his/her personal views, the source said, "Toyota
engineering is always investigating new and emerging technologies to
improve our vehicles and to reduce their impact on the earth. Sometime in
the future the state of the art of batteries may improve to the point that
grid connected approaches make sense from a mass market point of view,
personally I don't think that time has come yet."

As for Mr. Rohde’s conjectures, my source commented, "As far as I can tell,
Peter seems to be doing some wishful thinking or perhaps speculating".

In short, it ain’t happening at Toyota, not yet, at least.

But what about the mysterious Honda EV+?

According to Honda, the car was one of their cold climate test vehicles,
presumably now being used as a runabout in the Los Angeles area where the
company has its North American headquarters in nearby Torrance about 15
miles from the airport. The tailpipe is the exhaust of a fossil fuel heater
used to keep the cabin warm in cold weather, since using an electric
radiant heater would dramatically shorten the electric car’s range.

Okay, I’ll buy that… except for two small discrepancies. One, the
photographer said the car had a gasoline engine and two, if it’s just
another EV+, then why isn’t it plugged in and being recharged?

And if Toyota isn’t developing a plug-in hybrid, why did it buy-out General
Motors’ 20 percent stake in Fuji Heavy Industries?

Sometimes the best keep secrets are hidden in plain sight. Sometimes they
aren’t. And sometimes, we all find ourselves engaged in wishful wishing.