Toyota planning two new hybrids

Toyota Motor Corporation has fired a fresh volley in the green car wars, promising two new hybrid vehicles and the start of lithium ion battery production next year.

The two hybrids - one badged a Toyota, the other a Lexus - will come on top of the third-generation Prius car, also due in 2009.

Masatami Takimoto, executive vice president in charge of research and development, said the Toyota will be larger than the Prius. "It's a totally new car."

For the redesigned Prius, Toyota will stick with the current generation's nickel-metal hydride batteries. The long-awaited lithium ion batteries, light in weight and high in power, will debut in Toyota's first plug-in hybrid, due in 2010, he said.

Panasonic EV Energy Co., the joint venture that makes Toyota's hybrid vehicle batteries, will start making the lithium ion batteries next year, Takimoto said. Panasonic EV is building the production line at its main plant in Shizuoka, southwest of Tokyo.

Initial output will test quality consistency. Mass production will begin in 2010. Toyota outlined the plans as part of a sweeping environmental blueprint that touched on sustainable research and development, manufacturing and social responsibility.

Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe said he already is thinking beyond lithium. To that end, the automaker is setting up a battery research department to develop a post-lithium ion battery with even better performance, he said. Takimoto said the department will start with 50 people and double the staffing in two years. Possible chemistries for the new batteries include metal-air batteries, he said. Toyota is racing to crank up battery production so it can meet its goal of selling one million hybrid vehicles a year in the early 2010s. A shortage of batteries is one reason Toyota hasn't been able to boost production of the Prius to meet global demand. It's good to keep in mind that although nowadays all major car companies have awakened to the environmental call, this issue has been on Toyota's agenda for the past 20 years. It was Toyota with the Prius which commercialised the first Hybrid car, the Prius launched in 1997.