More pooh from Toyota

Toyota pushed its innovative "21st century" car development into full gear in the early 1990s under company chairman Eiji Toyoda.

"Developing a commercial electric vehicle at that time posed a slew of challenges," the official said. "That is the case even today."

...a battery pack's ability to hold a charge and its durability vary by temperature and driving conditions, the automaker points out.

Full story "Future of 'green' cars begins with the hybrid" in Japan's leading newspaper, The Asahi Shimbun.

Toyota pooh-poohs the plug

In the wake of Secretary Chu's defunding hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles, Toyota continues its assault on the inevitable plug. They don't want to be rushed into it. Automakers the world round have had 100 years to suck every ounce of profit possible from the internal combustion engine, and Toyota intends to get at least a few decades out of its lead in gasoline-only hybrid vehicles. Somehow battery plug-in cars within thousands of dollars of cost competitiveness "enter the world of Star Trek" according to Bill Reinert, who nonetheless trumpets hydrogen fuel cell cars only a few hundred thousand each from any semblance of marketability.

Irv Miller of Toyota says of plug-ins "this dog won't hunt." Yet he cites the example of his own wife as one for whom it could work.

See the NY Times Wheels blog for more.