Latest Updates: prius RSS

• Green Rating for Cars
  Srikant Rajan 03:17:31 pm on October 26, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: EPA, green car, honda civic, Hybrid, prius, toyota camry

  US Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) has come out with a SmartWay program for gauging the efficiency of the plethora of green cars. This program was created in 2004 to rank the fuel efficiency of commercial trucks and was expanded to include passenger vehicles.

  Now customers won’t have to wade through the growing number of ratings and jargons such as “ Tier II, Bin 5, grams of carbon dioxide per mile ” associated with a cars green efficiency. Under this program a “ green leaf “or an “ elite green leaf “ is awarded to the cleanest of all the cars. Some models to earn this elite certification include, natural gas-powered Honda Civic GX, the hybrid Toyota Prius , hybrid versions of the Civic, Nissan Altima and Toyota Camry

   

• Hybrid Cars And Solar Power
  Srikant Rajan 04:25:04 pm on July 7, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: electric cars, Hybrid, prius, solar energy, toyota

  Toyota is planning to add a solar edge to its best selling hybrid car – the Prius. These panels supplied by Kyocera Corp would power part of air-conditioning in some of the high end gasoline versions of Prius.

  This latest move by Toyota comes at a time when it is facing an unprecedented demand for Prius and is unable to leverage its management expertise to jack up its production capability. Solar power is expensive and not a likely candidate for powering a hybrid car which already is significantly expensive than conventional fossil fuel powered vehicle. Additionally solar energy becomes feasible in large scale power generation, when spread over a couple of acres. As Kentaro Endo renewable energy specialist and director at Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry says “ Even if you laid solar panels out on the entire roof of a house, you only generate enough energy to run two hair dryers. ” This seems more like a PR exercise to placate disgruntled prius aspirants so that Toyota can buy some time to figure a way out to get more hybrids out and fast.

   

   

• Not Enough Hybrid Cars for All !
  Srikant Rajan 02:38:52 pm on July 7, 2008 | 1 | # |
  Tags: electric cars, Hybrid, prius, toyota

  People just can’t seem to get enough of Toyotas Prius model. Toyota had initially anticipated the spike in crude oil prices . It hence worked to establish a greener and cost competitive alternative(hybrid cars) to conventional cars. This perhaps enabled it to emerge as the virtual leader in the hybrid car segment. The trouble it seems now is that it can’t provide enough Prius as its supply and manufacturing capacity is woefully inadequate to cater to the rapid increase in demand. George Ramirez, sales manager at the Toyota dealership in Salinas, California, says customers are waiting between six weeks and four months for the cars. Adds Ramirez “ The demand is very high ”.

  The devil behind the limited supply capacity of hybrids is the batteries used in hybrid cars, in addition to components such as regulators and transaxles. This despite Toyota’s plans to jack up batteries production by engaging in an association with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Toyota often cited as a management expert itself admits to “ bottlenecks ” in production of batteries.

   

• Toyota to Boost Production of Electric Car Batteries
  Srikant Rajan 02:45:54 pm on June 12, 2008 | 4 | # |
  Tags: electric cars, honda, lithium ion, metal hydride, mitsubhishi, nissan, prius, toyota

  Toyota , of Pirius fame has set ambitious targets for sale of its new improved variant.Toyota anticipates global annual sales of a million electric cars post 2010.It is presently engaged in a battery venture with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co for production of nickel metal hydride batteries.Additionally Toyota is also planning to increase production of the lithium ion batteries by 2010. President Katsuaki Watanabe of Toyota says  ” We plan to use both nickel-metal hydride and lithium-ion batteries, choosing the appropriate option depending on the vehicle “.

  Companies like Nissan, Mitsubhishi, are also engaged in several partnerships to boost production of lithium-ion batteries.The supply of batteries presents the biggest bottleneck for the production of hybrid cars at present.Alternatives like ultracapacitors and fuel cells have not found much favor with car-makers barring Honda,which has replaced a battery in its FCX clarity by an ultracapacitors.