Toyota Motor Corp will begin selling "affordable" plug-in hybrid cars in 2011, upping the ante on General Motors and Nissan Motor as they aim to take the lead in the field of rechargeable cars.
Toyota's first plug-in model, the Prius Plug-In Hybrid (PHV), adds an external charging function and more batteries to the popular Prius to enable longer-distance driving on electricity alone.
Because it can also run on gasoline, plug-in hybrids -- such as GM's upcoming Volt due for sale next year -- eliminate the "range anxiety" seen as one of the main shortcomings of battery-powered pure electric cars.
The Prius PHV can travel 23.4 km (14.5 miles) using only the electric motor, making a short commute possible on zero emissions, Toyota said. On a full charge and full tank of gas, the car could theoretically travel 1,400 km (870 miles), it said.
Nissan's pure electric Leaf car due for sale in 2010 has a range of 160 km (100 miles) on a single charge.
Toyota, the world's biggest automaker and by far the top seller of gasoline-electric hybrid cars, said it would aim to sell "several tens of thousand" plug-in hybrid cars at an "affordable" price range.
Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota's R&D chief and father of the original Prius, declined to specify a price range but indicated it would likely be far cheaper than 3 million yen ($33,770).
"Nowadays in the United States, they sell after-market kits for about 1 million yen ($11,260)" to convert a hybrid car into a plug-in, he told a presentation on Monday. "Of course, we would have to do much better than that as a mass producer."
The third-generation Prius starts at 2.05 million yen in Japan and $22,400 in the United States.
Uchiyamada said he expects the first mass-produced plug-in cars -- which may not take the shape of a Prius -- would be sold globally.
GM's Volt, on track to become the first mass-market, plug-in hybrid in the United States, could cost as much as $40,000 before a $7,500 consumer tax credit is applied, GM has said. The U.S. automaker expects to sell about 10,000 Volts in the first year of production and 60,000 in its second full year.
