Autoblog has a post on Toyota's plans to finally enter the electric vehicle market - Toyota jumping into electric vehicle mass production by 2020.

According to a report by Nikkei Asian Review, Toyota plans to jump into battery electric vehicle (BEV) mass production by 2020. This could be an abrupt shift from the company's focus on fuel-cell electric vehicles, as BEVs have been absent from any of Toyota's announced or rumored future vehicles. The plan would coincide with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, of which Toyota is a major sponsor.

Earth Techling has a post on Japan's plans to expand the EV charger network - Toyota Continues Green Tech Car Parade With EV Chargers.

The Japanese automaker is conducting this program in conjunction with four local governments and 13 business and organizations. Building upon a project from last year that saw EV charging stations put mostly into commercial sites, the next step is now expanding this to hotels and nearby tourist hangouts. 40 new chargers will go in, supplementing the 32 which are already up and running from last year’s testing. ...

Besides this undertaking, Toyota is involved in a much larger charger plan with rivals Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi Motors, as well as the national Japanese government. Officials announced back in July they would put up over $1.025 billion in subsidies towards the goal of adding over 8,000 normal and 4,000 quick charging stations around the country as a way to “quickly develop the charging infrastructure and expand the use of electric-powered vehicles using alternative energy sources.”

Bloomberg has a report on large car company interest in small scale lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles - Toyota Adopts Tesla Laptop Battery Strategy for Electric Cars.

Toyota Motor Corp., Daimler AG and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG are turning to laptops for a cheaper way to power their electric cars -- and their sales.

Automakers are testing packs of lithium-ion batteries assembled by Silicon Valley startup Tesla Motors Inc. costing less than bigger, car-only batteries favored by General Motors Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. A pack of 6,831 cylinder-shaped cells made by Panasonic Corp. powers Tesla’s $109,000 Roadster sports car for up to 245 miles per charge.

The car industry will help lithium-ion battery makers more than triple sales to 5 trillion yen ($60 billion) in a decade from 1.5 trillion yen in the year ending in March, according to Sanyo Electric Co., the world’s biggest maker of the batteries. Rechargeable consumer-electronics batteries benefit from an economy of scale that may help cut manufacturing costs and sticker prices in the nascent electric-car industry, said Koji Endo, a Tokyo-based analyst at Advanced Research Japan.

“It may lead to the total component cost of an electric car getting lower than that of a gasoline car,” Endo said. “As the cost lowers, there’ll be more likelihood that retail prices of electric cars will drop.”

EV prices are higher than three-quarters of the autos now sold, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, with GM’s Chevrolet Volt selling for $41,000 and Nissan’s Leaf for $32,780. Electric vehicles cost about twice as much to produce as gasoline-engine cars because the batteries are so expensive, according to consultant Frost & Sullivan Inc.

Sales of EVs and hybrids, including plug-in models, will reach about 954,000 worldwide this year, or about 2.2 percent of all car sales, J.D. Power and Associates, an industry forecaster in Westlake Village, California, estimated in October.

Government subsidies may help boost sales of plug-in hybrids and EVs to 9 percent of auto sales in 2020, Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimated last month.

Panasonic, the majority shareholder in Sanyo, is the main supplier of lithium-ion cells to Tesla and last month bought a $30 million stake in the Palo Alto, California, company. Toyota and Daimler also own Tesla stakes.

The CSM has an article on a deal between Toyota and Tesla Motors, "in which Tesla will buy a defunct Toyota plant in California, and Toyota will purchase $50 million of Tesla stock" - Will Tesla-Toyota deal help repair Toyota's public image?.

In a move that may provide a spark for the electric automobile industry, Toyota, the world's largest automaker, is teaming up Tesla Motors Inc, the makers of the only highway-legal all-electric car in the United States.

The companies announced a deal yesterday in which Tesla will buy a defunct Toyota plant in California where it will produce the model S, an electric sedan slated for 2012.

Toyota, meanwhile, will buy $50 million worth of Tesla stock, and the two companies announced Thursday that they will work together to develop new electric vehicle technologies and refine manufacturing methods.

In this symbiotic business deal, Tesla will likely benefit from direct knowledge of Toyota's economy of scale and links to a vast supplier base.

Toyota, for its part, might get a boost in its competition with other carmakers over the growing environmentally friendly vehicle marketplace. Tesla's advanced lithium-ion batteries, for example, might steer the way for Toyota as the Japanese automaker looks to replace the older nickel-metal hydride units found in its hybrid Prius.

The SMH reports the new hybrid Toyota Camry is rolling off production lines in Australia - Australia's first hybrid car arrives.

Australia's first locally-built hybrid production car rolled off the assembly line at Toyota's Altona Plant this morning.

The hybrid version of the Toyota Camry will go on sale early in the New Year, marking the beginning of a new, greener era for the local car industry.

All three local makers have committed to building more fuel-efficient cars over the next two years, with Holden scheduled to start production of a small car towards the end of next year and Ford to build a four-cylinder version of its Falcon from 2011.

Toyota plans to sell 10,000 hybrid Camrys a year - roughly a third of total Camry sales - and the Victorian Government has already committed to buy 2000 of them. Private buyers may be hard pressed to get their hands on the car, though, as Toyota insiders say fleet pre-orders for the car have been particularly strong.

The car will be more powerful than the existing Camry, thanks to its supplementary electric motor, but is expected to use less fuel than the smallest cars on our roads. It will use 30 per cent less fuel than a standard four-cylinder petrol Camry, or roughly 6 litres per 100km.

The Federal Government has committed $35 million to the project through its Green Car fund, which is also subsidising development of more fuel-efficient vehicles by Holden and Ford.

Drive.com.au reports that Toyota has begun production of hybrid cars in Australia - Camry Hybrid production begins in Australia.

Sparks flew this morning as Toyota Australia turned on the robots that will make the country’s first hybrid car based on a Camry.

Dignitaries on hand included Federal Industry Minister Kim Carr and Victorian premier John Brumby both of whom have invested taxpayers funds heavily in order to secure the project.

The Camry, the biggest seller in the medium-sized car category, will receive the equivalent of a heart and lung transplant to accommodate Toyota’s "Synergy Drive" hybrid drivetrain.

It allies an electric motor to a conventional internal combustion four-cylinder petrol engine with sophisticated electronics to charge its onboard battery.

The hybrid Camry, like the Toyota Prius hybrid, can operate on electric power alone, or in tandem with the petrol engine to cut fuel use and emissions.

It’s a high stakes venture to secure the future of the Altona manufacturing plant and its workers and suppliers, which has seen demand slump for its locally-made four-cylinder Camry and six-cylinder Aurion sedans.

Toyota will build a small batch of pre-production vehicles at Altona before beginning full-scale production in December. The car will go on sale in February.

The Age reports that "In little more than a decade, you could be driving a Toyota made from seaweed" - with the seaweed being the source material for the car's bioplastic exterior - Toyota's seaweed car makes a splash.

oyota's engineers are trying to plot a course for the post-oil age, and plastics for structures and trim made from plants could be used to make cars of the future, says the manager of Toyota's Australian styling studio, Paul Beranger.

For now, Mr Beranger and his designers have focused on localising the look of the much-heralded petrol-electric hybrid Camry, which will be displayed in "concept" form at Friday's motor show opening in Melbourne.

The "concept" version to be shown features show-car bling - such as fancy blue headlights, a pearlescent paint job and a nature-inspired randomly patterned grille - to dress up what is otherwise a fairly standard-looking Camry.

The hybrid Camry, approved for local production from early next year with federal and state government grants totalling $50million, has not been without its controversy. In effect, taxpayers are helping to fund the hybrid Camry twice: once to be built, and again when bought by government fleets.

Toyota is looking to a greener future — literally — with dreams of an ultralight, superefficient plug-in hybrid with a bioplastic body made of seaweed that could be in showrooms within 15 years.

The kelp car would build upon the already hypergreen 1/X plug-in hybrid concept, which weighs 926 pounds, by replacing its carbon-fiber body with plastic derived from seaweed. As wild as it might sound, bioplastics are becoming increasingly common and Toyota thinks it's only a matter of time before automakers use them to build cars.

"We used lightweight carbon-fiber reinforced plastic throughout the body and frame for its superior collision safety," project manager Tetsuya Kaida said of the 1/X, which is pronounced "one-xth." "But that material is made from oil. In the future, I'm sure we will have access to new and better materials, such as those made from plants, something natural, maybe something like paper. In fact, I want to create such a vehicle from seaweed because Japan is surrounded by the sea."

A kelp car is not as far-fetched as it might sound. Bioplastics are being used for everything from gift cards to cellphone cases. Demand for the stuff is expected to hit 50 billion pounds annually within five years, a figure that would account for 10 percent of the world market for plastic, according to USA Today. A company called NatureWorks claims the production of its bioplastic Inego produces 60 percent less carbon dioxide than petroleum-based plastic and requires 30 percent less energy. And Oakridge National Laboratory has explored the possibility of producing carbon fiber from wood pulp.

Toyota is laying out its green vision of the future ahead of the Melbourne Motor Show, where it will highlight three sweet hybrids — the next-gen Prius, a cool Camry concept designed in Australia and the 1/X, so named because its carbon footprint is a fraction of that of other cars.

"The 1/X concept is a vehicle that completely redefines what it means to be environmentally considerate," David Buttner, senior executive director of sales and marketing, said in a statement. "The name says it all: a car that weighs a fraction of the others in its class today and uses a fraction of the fuel."

The 1/X has been kicking around the show circuit for more than a year, and the photo is from its North American debut at the 2008 Chicago auto show. It features a tiny 500cc engine and weighs about one-third as much as the Prius while offering about as much interior space. It's got a flex-fuel engine and electric motor powered by lithium-ion batteries.

Technology Review reports that the new Prius is designed so that its battery pack can be swapped out for a plug-in lithium-ion battery - Toyota to Deliver Plug-In Hybrids.

Today at the North American International Automotive Show, in Detroit, Toyota announced that later this year, it will release a version of the Prius hybrid car whose battery can be recharged from an ordinary power outlet. By moving up the delivery data of the plug-in vehicle--originally scheduled for 2010--Toyota has slipped ahead of GM, whose Chevy Volt plug-in is promised for late 2010.

Toyota's fidelity to hybrid technology marks a sharp contrast with rivals such as Renault and Mitsubishi, which are planning to leapfrog the hybrid in favor of fully battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs). At the auto show, several U.S. automakers appear to be leaning in the same direction, with Ford Motor, in particular, vowing to release an EV commercial van next year and an EV commuter car in 2011.

Even Toyota is hedging its bets, presenting a battery-powered EV based on its four-seat iQ and promising to begin selling a similar EV commuter car in the United States by 2012. But Toyota explicitly ruled out abandoning hybrid technology anytime soon, issuing a definitive statement on the eve of the Detroit show calling hybrids its "long-term core powertrain technology."

The 2010 Prius available to consumers will still come equipped with a nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) battery pack and no plug, but Toyota says that it is "plug-in ready"--designed and engineered to accept a lighter and more energy-dense lithium-ion battery pack that can be charged from the grid. Toyota will also produce 500 lithium-powered plug-in Priuses for its commercial and government leasing customers starting later this year. Toyota-Panasonic joint venture Panasonic EV Energy will supply the lithium batteries.

The fact that the plug-in battery pack can be swapped in for an ordinary hybrid battery suggests that it will be relatively small, and that the plug-in Priuses will have a smaller electric-only range than the Volt and the Chinese-built BYD F3DM. The plug-in vehicles that Toyota has been testing in Japan, France, California, and the United Kingdom are Priuses equipped with a second NiMH battery pack that gives them less than 10 miles of electric-only range.

Limiting the battery size is a conscious decision. Recent studies suggest that a limited amount of electric-only range may be optimal for plug-ins, especially in the United States, where half of electricity generation is coal fired. A working paper by Duke University researchers, released in November, predicts that plug-in hybrids storing enough electricity to travel 40 miles on a charge--like the Chevy Volt--will offer few if any greenhouse-gas reductions relative to conventional hybrids. Such long-range plug-ins will likely also cost more per mile, thanks to the high price of the lithium-ion batteries required to store the electricity.

In contrast, research to be delivered today by Carnegie Mellon University mechanical engineer and design expert Jeremy Michalek at the National Academy of Sciences' Transportation Research Board meeting finds that plug-ins with just 20 miles of electric range are likely to best conventional hybrids in both cost and carbon footprint--assuming they are charged frequently.

General Motors (GM) is getting into the battery-making business. On Monday, the company confirmed early speculation that LG Chem, based in Korea, will supply lithium-ion batteries for its Volt electric vehicle, which is due out next year. But GM also announced that it intends to start manufacturing battery packs itself, noting that battery manufacturing will be central to its business going forward.

The Chevrolet Volt is an electric vehicle that runs on batteries charged from an ordinary power outlet for trips shorter than 40 miles. For longer journeys, an onboard gasoline or ethanol-powered generator will recharge the battery. Two battery companies, LG Chem and A123 Systems, based in Watertown, MA, have been in the running to supply the key component of a battery pack--the individual battery cells--for the Volt. Hundreds of such cells must be wired together and paired with control electronics to create the car's 16-kilowatt-hour battery pack.

Initially, cells from LG Chem will be assembled into battery packs by a subsidiary of LG Chem: Compact Power, based in Troy, MI. But once a new manufacturing plant is built, GM itself will assemble cells into battery packs, according to Monday's announcement. Bob Kruse, GM's executive director of North American Engineering Operations, says that the decision to make batteries is much like GM's decision to make its own engines because the technology is vital to the company's future success.

GM's decision is part of a strategic shift by the company toward the electrification of its automobiles, which will range from cars that rely on electric motors and batteries for brief bursts of power to those that run on electricity alone.

Baylor University researchers have found a way to make car parts with coconut fibers, a process that utilizes waste coconut husks and would increase income for farmers. The researchers have been working on low-cost products that can be made with coconuts, abundant in equatorial regions where about 11 million coconut farmers earn about $500 a year.

Though a process that utilizes coconut fibers in place of synthetic or polyester fibers in compression molded composites, the researchers have focused on coconut-based trunk liners, floorboards and interior door covers. Part of their goal is to design products that can be manufactured simply and inexpensively, as well as triple the market price for coconuts to 30 cents each.

The researchers say that their process would be cheaper than using synthetic fibers and utilize husks, which would ordinarily be thrown away. ...

At least a couple carmakers, Toyota and Mazda, have also been experimenting with using bioplastic to make a range of car parts.

The SMH has an article on a new electric car from Toyota - Affordable electric car to 'hit streets in 2012'.

An electric car costing only $25,000 could be on sale in Australia within three years. The Japanese car maker used the 2009 Detroit motor show to unveil the FT-EV, a concept car that previews a new battery-electric "urban commuter" vehicle set to go on sale globally in 2012.

US media is reporting the diminutive FT-EV could wear an affordable price tag of about US$20,000 (about $25,000). The FT-EV will see Toyota join the growing number of manufacturers who in the early years of the next decade will offer vehicles that run on electricity.

The FT-EV is based on Toyota's iQ micro-car that landed in European and Japanese showrooms in 2008, though swaps that car's 1.0-litre petrol engine for a 45kW electric motor powered by a lithium-ion battery pack. Toyota says the three-metre-long, four-seater FT-EV has a cruising range of 80km and a targeted top speed of 112km/h. It takes between 2.5 and 7.5 hours to recharge the FT-EV, depending on the voltage of the power supply.

The company says the FT-EV will broaden its range of alternative-fuel vehicles as the world faces dwindling oil supplies, and will be aimed at city residents who would use the battery-electric car to commute between home and work, or to drive to other forms of public transport such as railway stations.

"Last year's spike in the price of petrol was no anomaly," says Toyota Motor Sales group vice president, environmental and public affairs, Irv Miller. "It was a brief glimpse of our future. We must address the inevitability of peak oil [when the world's oil supply starts a permanent decline] by developing vehicles powered by alternatives to liquid-oil fuel, as well as new concepts, like the iQ, that are lighter in weight and smaller in size. This kind of vehicle, electrified or not, is where our industry must focus its creativity."

Toyota says its petrol-electric hybrid vehicles - such as the third-generation Prius also revealed at the 2009 Detroit motor show - will continue to be at the centre of the company's long-term sustainable motoring program.

The company will introduce 10 new petrol-electric hybrid models by the early 2010s in various markets as it targets one-million hybrid sales per year.

Energy Tech Stocks has a look at a recent corporate sustainability report from Toyota and concludes they sound like a bunch of crazy peak oil doomers - Sounding Like ‘Peak Oil’ Advocate, Toyota Warns World Faces ‘Supply Shortages and Resource Exhaustion’ (actually they point out we ned to shift to electric vehicles, which Toyota have been leading the charge on, if you'll forgive the pun).

Toyota Motor Corp. said in a new report that by 2020 there may be 1.5 billion vehicles on global highways, 600 million more than there are today, a situation the automaker warned “increases both the possibility of supply shortages and resource exhaustion.”

The report, Toyota’s Sustainability Report for 2008, echoes a July warning from Toyota’s coordinator for alternately fueled vehicles, Bill Reinert, that the world could hit what he reportedly called a “liquid peak” within a decade. Reinert’s warning, made in Portland, Ore., at a conference on sustainable cities that Toyota sponsored, was first reported on the website Green Car Congress, which noted that Toyota thinks a liquid peak could occur even if all available liquid fuels are produced at maximum capacity without concern for the impact on the environment.

The phrase “liquid peak” would appear to be a more dire warning of the potential for motor fuel shortages than the warnings encompassed in the term “peak oil.” While peak oil refers specifically to oil production reaching a physical limit insufficient to satisfy demand, the term liquid peak suggests that not just oil but also biofuel and nonconventional fossil fuel production could reach maximum output and there would still not be enough liquid transportation fuel for some 1.5 billion cars and trucks.

Toyota makes it clear in its report that reducing the number of cars and trucks on the road isn’t an option in its opinion. At the same time, Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe says in the report’s introduction that, “We at Toyota are keenly aware that without focusing on energy and global warming countermeasures there can be no future for motor vehicles.”

Having backed itself into a corner, Toyota in its report hails the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) as the answer to how the world can increase the number of vehicles on the road without seriously increasing the environmental damage those additional vehicles would cause if they ran on gasoline and diesel. Plug-in vehicles “are the best option for reducing CO2 emissions because of their optimal utilization of electrical energy,” the report states.

The report further notes, “The battery in a plug-in hybrid vehicle can be charged using household electricity. . . . Electric vehicle operation (running on the motor alone) offers a possible cruising distance of 13km, and assuming a driving distance of 25 km per day, the CO2 emissions of the plug-in hybrid vehicle will be about 13% lower than those of the Prius, which already emits 40% to 50% less CO2 than ordinary gasoline-powered vehicles.”

While the report states that by 2010 Toyota expects to be selling to fleet customers plug-ins with long-lasting lithium ion batteries, their introduction may come quicker than that, as we’ll examine in Part 2 of this Special Report, which will highlight Toyota’s apparent growing fear of General Motors and other plug-in car developers.

The Guardian has an article on the new CAFE standards proposed in the contentious US energy bill, pondering the lack of progress in fuel efficiency over the years. "What would Amory Lovins make of all this" ?

Before this week, the last time US politicians had put such a tight squeeze on the automobile industry over the fuel efficiency of its vehicles was 1975. It's now been 32 long years since the first standards were introduced - known as CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) - and all attempts to significantly improve them over this period have been soundly rebuffed by the predictable vested interests. Of course, there is no guarantee that the new standards, which were passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday, will survive a Senate filibuster, or a veto from the White House, but the new Democrat-inspired standards at least point to a coming sea-change in the US over its attitude towards tackling climate change. That's the hope, anyway. ...

But two new priorities now ring loud and clear in the regulators' ears - climate change and fast-rising oil prices (rearrange these two in order of priority for US politicians, as you choose). If you accept that it is a rare, frankly as yet unelected, politician who can convince people to drive their vehicles fewer miles each year, then the only hope of tackling rising transport-related emissions is to seek alternative fuels or greatly improve the efficiency of all vehicles consuming fossil fuels.

The new energy bill, which was passed by a vote of 235-181, demands that the car industry's average fuel economy must improve 40% by 2020 and achieve 35mpg. This sounds like a big rise at first, but considering it is coming from such a low base-point, it doesn't exactly invoke optimism that we have a chance of ever meeting the overall 80%-90% reductions targets across all sectors by 2050, as is now becoming the mantra for an increasing number of politicians. And it could yet be torn up, or compromised, as it continues its passage through Congress. Things are not much better in Europe. In October, the European Parliament voted to back a much-watered-down emissions reductions target for vehicles. ...

What must Amory Lovins make of all this? For decades now, as one of the world's most respected energy advisors, he has argued that improving fuel efficiencies year-on-year across all sectors benefits everyone (well, except for a few oil producers). Whether your concern is climate change, global political instability, or just squeezing the most from your dollar, everyone should want and seek fuel-efficiency gains. It's the ultimate no-brainer. Lovins has even advised the Pentagon - the world's largest buyer of oil - on how to reduce the amount of fuel it consumes on its excursions abroad through efficiency savings. In 2002, as the US prepared for another conflict in oil-rich Iraq, Lovins pointed out an off-beam way to avert such conflicts in the future. Simply by improving the average fuel economy of cars in the US by 2.7mpg, he said, it would extinguish the need for the US to import any oil from the Persian Gulf.

Lovins also often talks of a Japanese concept known as muda as another way of greatly improving fuel efficiencies over time. Muda is one of the Japanese terms for describing "waste" within any system. Combined with muri (lack of standardisation) and mura (inconsistencies), these underpin the business philosophy of Toyota in which it seeks to eradicate the "seven wastes" - Defects, Overproduction, Transportation, Waiting, Inventory, Motion and Overprocessing. This meticulous attempt to iron out any inefficiency in its systems (also sometimes referred to as "Lean Manufacturing") helped Toyota overtake General Motors to become the world's largest car manufacturer earlier this year. It has also played a huge part in Toyota becoming synonymous with hybrid technology, as displayed in its popular Prius.

Just how long do we have to wait before this attention to detail - when it comes to improving efficiencies, particularly fuel efficiency - becomes the norm across not just the car industry, but all sectors?