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Toyota Prius III with NiMH battery


Author Message
Written on: 08 May 2008 [20:01]
ecoadmin
Administrator
Topic creator
registered since: 20.07.2007
Posts: 583
If information on Edmunds.com is correct, then the new Prius III will be entering the market with NiMH batteries. The new Prius III will be presented at the Detroit Motor Show this year. For Prius fans dissapointing is the announcement that the newest Prius will not be equipped with a plug-in option. Toyota wants to launch the Plug-In Prius in 2010 together with the more powerful Lithium batteries.

Twike 890 http://images.spritmonitor.de/461746.png
Written on: 12 May 2008 [20:39]
childress
Administrator
registered since: 14.08.2007
Posts: 140
Yep, this is inline with what I've heard. I'm a big fan of Toyotas (been driving them all my life) and I fully expect a Toyota car to get between 200-300,000 miles (321-482,000km) on it before it needs to be replaced.

Still, it IS disappointing for anyone that wants it NOW (which is precisely why I have a 10-year-old Twike), however from a reliability and manufacturing standpoint is understandable: Toyota is very knowledgeable on integrating the NiMH batteries into the Prius.

The holy grail in the US is the plug-in diesel/biodiesel MiniVan. Most MiniVans are around-town vehicles, so if you could get 20-50 miles per charge off the batteries, and then run on biodiesel whenever you can... yum! You could argue a plug-in diesel electric SUV, but I don't think a true greenie would buy one icon_wink.gif

Electric motors last forever and are easy to rebuild, and the same for diesels. Being able to flex fuel between biodiesel and diesel on the fly (the two can be mixed with no repercussions) would give the driver the ultimate in green flexibility AND convenience, so if you go on vacation and can't get biodiesel, oh well, regular diesel will work just fine without a second thought.

All of that being said, my next car (totalled our '03 Prius in an accident last month) will be plug-in, if we can stretch our '91 Camry out long enough, and that's all dependant on whether I can keep my wife happy -- I'm happy because my daily driver is the Twike icon_wink.gif I figure that making it until 2010 shouldn't be a problem -- the Camry has 190,000 miles on it right now (~300,000km).

Commute suck? Twike it; You'll like it!
http://www.uiuc.edu/goto/twike



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