As I mentioned earlier today, the FREEDOM Act language regarding tax incentives for Americans looking to convert their hybrids to plug-in versions was stripped out of the energy bill that ended up passing in the U.S. Senate. Toyota made their claim for why PHEVs are a bad idea, and in my inbox today was the newsletter from the EDTA, and it included this bit from EDTA President Brian Wynne regarding the reason that part of the bill was removed:

"Late last week, the Senate passed its energy bill after defeating a carefully crafted tax package, which contained a plug-in electric drive vehicle credit that EDTA played a major role in putting together. The cause of this setback had nothing to do with electric drive; rather, it was the controversial tax provisions paying for the tax package that proved to be the insurmountable hurdle that day. The effort is far from over, though, and we are continuing to promote our tax priorities in both Houses and on both sides of the aisle."

So, a lot of those technical reasons that Toyota brought up in their letter to the Senate might not hold as much water as they'd hoped. CalCars wil be happy, and where does this leave Toyota?

[Source: EDTA]

Pushed by talk in Congress about possibly giving incentives to taxpayers for converting standard hybrids to plug-in hybrids, Toyota today announced their reasons for not supporting PHEVs. In a memo written by Charles E. Ing, Director, Government Affairs Toyota Motor North America, and posted over at pro-PHEV advocates CalCars, Toyota says that, "PHEV converters should comply with existing standards governing second stage manufacturers, if applicable, and, NHTSA and EPA should be required to establish new regulations for certification of conversions of used vehicles. In other words, the product liability and warranty risk, should be assumed by the converter. The government should assure that there be no degradation in emissions and vehicle safety before it provides taxpayer incentives."

Toyota's main areas of concern for PHEV conversions are as follows:

• The cars will no longer be compliant with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
• Most conversions use lithium batteries, which Toyota has decided are not good.
• There is an increased fire risk and injury in an accident, and the spare tire is usually removed.
• The extra batteries have an adverse effect on the rear suspension.
• The warranty is voided by the installation of PHEV systems.

CalCars has a list of good responses to these claims, including the fact that Toyota left out the bit about how any incentives offered by the FREEDOM Act would apply only to cars that had passed crash tests. You can read them all here (at bottom of page).

[Source: CalCars]