Recently the Wall Street Journal published a story claiming that General Motors and Toyota were both backing off on their fuel cell development efforts. It appears that in spite of quotes from GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz and Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe, fuel cells are still seen as the long term solution for on-board energy generation. Toyota communications boss Irv Miller has a new entry on the Open Road blog that corresponds with what Jaycie Chitwood and Bob Carter told ABG last month in Chicago. Toyota is still committed to the technology and has demonstrated the functionality. Their efforts now are focused on cost reduction. The other major issue - one that is outside of Toyota or GM's scope of responsibility - is the fueling infrastructure. It appears likely from what we've heard from multiple companies that widespread hydrogen availability won't happen first in the U.S. Places like China and Norway seem much more interested in making H2 a reality and will probably lead the way. Until that happens Toyota, GM, Ford, Daimler and other will press ahead on the vehicle side of the equation so that they are ready to go when the pumps are.

[Source: Toyota]

Last Sunday night, Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe announced that the company would offer lithium ion equipped plug-in hybrids to fleet customers in two years. Toyota and Panasonic are also doing feasibility studies for an automotive lithium battery production line at their joint venture battery plant. But that should not be interpreted to mean that Toyota feels the technology is ready for prime time yet. Watanabe made it very clear that the PHEV fleet would comprise only a few hundred vehicles for a field test and would not be offered to the public. The company wants to evaluate how the batteries perform in the real world, but still keep them relatively under control until they achieve a certain degree of confidence.

Over on the Toyota Open Road blog, VP Communications Irv Miller responds today to some of the reactions to Watanabe-san's announcements. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member Jon Wellinghof responded that he hoped the Toyota PHEV fleet leads the way on Vehicle-to-Grid technology. While I have been at odds with some of Miller's comments in the past I do believe he is on the money this time. V2G is certainly a promising concept for buffering and stabilizing the electrical grid. To have any real impact, however, it needs wide-spread implementation and upgrades to the infrastructure to support stepping up the current for transmission. Miller also makes a good point about customers potentially being reluctant to give up their electric range if gas prices rise significantly. Toyota may have gone down the wrong path with lithium battery chemistry, but they seem to be intent on catching up. PHEVs are coming but there is still plenty for car-makers to learn about managing batteries to make them robust enough to last the life of the vehicle.

[Source: Toyota Open Road Blog]

For the last several years Toyota has held an annual get together following the close of the first day of media previews at the Detroit Auto Show. This year's shin-dig brought with it several surprises. Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe made an unannounced appearance and delivered about a ten minute address to the gathered crowd of automotive hacks. He reviewed Toyota's commitment to sustainable mobility. Toyota plans to continue developing a variety of advanced technologies including hybrids, clean diesels and hydrogen fuel cells. They plan to work on and promote a changes in transportation such as mass transit, mixed mobility, and intelligent highway systems. Mixed mobility includes ideas like the iGo personal transporters that Toyota has been showing in the last couple of years. Fueling systems for future vehicles such as hydrogen fueling stations and recharging kiosks will be developed and promoted by Toyota in partnerships with governments, academia and other energy and transportation companies.

One important element for Toyota is developing new technologies in-house rather purchasing or licensing from outside companies. In this way they can learn the lessons of the development and work faster. Among the new power-trains Toyota plans to introduce in the near future are a clean diesel engine for the large Tundra pickup and Sequoia SUV. Toyota Communications VP was unable to confirm if the engine recently introduced in overseas market Land Cruisers would be the basis for the US engine but that seems likely. No on-sale date was available for the new diesel although Miller did confirm that the new fuel economy requirements were part of the decision. With all three US automakers introducing light duty diesels to their trucks next year, Toyota surely won't want to be far behind.

Continue reading what else Watanabe had to say after the jump.

[Source: Toyota]

We've covered the fact that Toyota has seen some negative press recently regarding their line-up of cars and trucks in America. While the Prius is often the first vehicle thought of when the subject of green cars or hybrids is brought up, not everybody is smitten with the green credentials that Toyota claims to carry.

Irv Miller has already shot back once regarding negative press. Let's ask some questions of our readers here: How is Toyota doing when it comes to the vehicles they offer for sale in America? Are they green enough as it is? Are they just looking to capitalize on the success of their hybrid system for monetary gain? Does it matter?

[Source: Truth About Toyota]

Over at the Toyota Open Road Blog, Communications VP Irv Miller has chimed in again on the whole parallel vs series hybrid debate, this time with some fresh definitions. The previous postings have generated quite a bit of commentary both for and against Toyota's position. Miller first refutes some previous claims about a ten-mile range for Volt prototypes. Some commenters had attributed this to Toyota when in fact it originated with a Bloomberg story last summer.

He also discusses the issue of using nickel metal hydride batteries in a vehicle like Volt. He comes to GM's defense here by explaining that although a NiMH pack could achieve a twenty-mile range from the same sized pack, it would require deep discharge of the pack. This deep discharge would have a serious impact on the lifespan of the battery so that it would not last anywhere near the life of the car.

Perhaps Miller's most interesting, if dubious, point comes when he tries to redefine some hybrid terminology. The series hybrid is simple: it refers to a battery-powered vehicle with some kind of range extender. Miller defines a parallel hybrid as a system like the Honda IMA that does not have an EV-only mode. Most other people in the industry would call this a mild parallel hybrid, since both the internal combustion and electric motors provide torque to the wheels. In function this is little different from the GM belt-alternator-starter hybrid system.

Referring to Toyota's own Hybrid-Synergy-Drive system, he now terms to this as a series/parallel hybrid system. The series portion comes in because the system can drive the vehicle from the electric motor only, in addition to using the combination of the ICE/motor or just ICE. Ford, GM and everyone else using such a system just call this a strong parallel hybrid. This move of changing the terms of the discussion really comes off more as obfuscation of the argument than advancement. It seems like Toyota may be regretting opening this can of worms in the first place. At least Miller does acknowledge that their is no one right answer and that their is room for multiple solutions for different applications.

[Source: Toyota]