The 2010 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) proved to be a big event for Toyota. The automaker has appeared stagnant as it has shoved all of its chips into the Prius in recent years. The Japanese automaker used the 2010 NAIAS to lay out the future of its green vehicle fleet. Toyota stated that it will have battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) on the road by 2012 and fuel cell vehicles ready by 2015.
At the center of this green vehicle plan, of course, is a spin-off of the Toyota Prius. The FT-CH concept highlighted at NAIAS is a compact hybrid with similar features to the current Prius design. The Prius, the FT-CH concept and other vehicles will benefit from Toyota’s commitment to improved battery technology. Toyota and its partner Panasonic EVE Energy will have production capacity for one million batteries per year by the end of 2010. The automaker is working in-house to develop solid and metal-air batteries that would advance past lithium-ion batteries. This “beyond lithium” technology would allow Toyota to release up to eight new hybrid models by 2015.
Toyota also announced plans to expand BEV, fuel cell and hybrid testing starting in 2010. The president of Toyota Motor Sales America, Jim Lentz, announced that the FT-EV2 would tour the United States this year. Toyota’s plug-in hybrid demonstration program is kicking into high gear in 2010 with 150 PHEVs hitting American streets by March. The fuel cell hybrid vehicle (FCHV) demonstration program will be in full gear by 2013 with 100 demonstration vehicles distributed to testers in California and New York. Toyota is casting its net wide to capture a broad constituency of green vehicle fans over the next five years.
The Prius spin-off FT-CH shows that Toyota is not resting on its laurels as a new decade starts. The Toyota Prius will remain the basis for the automaker’s green vehicle plans instead of its primary focus. Green vehicle fans may be restless with demonstration programs and testing but Toyota is approaching its green vehicle plans the right way. If the timetable announced at NAIAS holds, Toyota will offer the most diverse fleet of green vehicles of any automaker by 2015. We will begin to see how far Toyota is progressing in its plans as information about the BEV, FCHV and PHEV tests begin to emerge.
