Toyota Motor Corporation, of Japan, has launched the HS250h sedan – the car maker’s first dedicated hybrid model, under the premium Lexus brand.  Toyota, the biggest automobile manufacturer in the world, says it has got orders worth 6 months of targeted sales in Japan.

The launch of the HS250h sedan is seen as part of Toyota’s latest efforts to bring fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles into the mainstream as governments worldwide are making rules on emissions and fuel economy stricter, along with offering consumers incentives to buy cars that pollute less.

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Yesterday I wrote about homes having their own wind power. Today, I came across an article where Toyota is planning to develop batteries for homes to run off of.  Now if, the wind power could charge the batteries, we might really be on to something.

Toyota Motor Corp. is working with Toyota Home to devise a power storage system to be used by as early as 2011. A home power system will be more practical for plug-in hybrid cars due out by 2010.

Their goal is to

1. design a device that costs hundreds of thousands of yen
2. is small enough to fit in the home or be placed outside
3. can store electricity during off-peak night hours
4. can store power generated by solar cells
5. can make power available for lighting and other uses in the home during the day
6. be a high-speed charging device that can power up plug-in cars.

Toyota’s prototype uses lithium ion batteries and can store some 5 kilowatt-hours of electricity. This is enough to meet the daytime energy needs of the average household.

But, can you drive the house?

Only then would Toyota REALLY have something.

Source: Nikkei (sub req)

I remember the gas wars when I was a kid. I once filled up my ‘60 VW bug (I bought it used) for less than $2.00. Gas was 24.9¢. That’s right, less than a quarter a gallon. Yeah, yeah. I’m old.

The point is, when there are price wars, the consumer wins.

Toyota and Honda are going to go at it with their hybrid cars. Remember those three reasons why Honda’s New Insight Will Beat Out Toyota’s New Prius? We may have been right, eh? Honda introduced its hybrid Insight last month and it has already received 18,000 orders, more than three times its monthly sales target.

Toyota is countering by preparing to lower the price of its Prius and roll out a new hybrid less than Y2 million (Insight costs Y1.89million). But their new hybrid with an engine smaller than 1.5 litre, isn’t expected out until 2011.

In the end, however, the consumer is going to win this war.

Via: AFP

The new Honda Insight is already hot in Japan. Orders are more than three times what was expected. “Overwhelming” says a Honda executive.

The car will be on sale in the States from April.

There are three reasons why the Honda Insight will beat out the Toyota Prius in the long run … maybe.

1. Honda Insight has a mass appeal – former mini-car owners, sedan-owners and minivan-owners are checking it out.
2. Honda Insight costs under $20,000, almost 20% less than a Toyota Prius.
3. Honda Insight boasts 61 miles per gallon, 33% BETTER than the Toyota Prius, and 20% BETTER than the new Prius due out this spring.

Economy is bad, gasoline prices unstable and leaning upwards, and the new Insight is not nearly as funky looking as the older one. My bet is this Honda Insight has a pretty good chance of making inroads into the market that the Prius now dominates.

Images via Autoblog

Orders for Honda Motor Co.’s environmentally friendly ultra fuel-efficient hybrid Insight hatchback have topped 10,000 units in just 10 days. The figure is double and then some the monthly sales goal set for the five-door vehicle.

Honda Insight Hybrid

The Insight base model of the Insight goes for $21,000 compared with $26,000 for the base model of Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius hybrid hatchback.

It’s all about the price, industry analysts said.

Question – would you buy a fuel-efficient hybrid knowing it’s better for the environment even you have to drive it 10 years to get your money back out of it in savings?

Let us hear from you.

Toyota says it will launch as many as 10 new hybrid gas-electric models within the next four years IF the economic downturn doesn’t prevent them and IF there is renewed consumer demand.

When gas was $4+ gallon (US) consumers didn’t mind paying an extra $3-5,000. They seem to mind now that gas is half that price.

Toyota has a fleet of 500 plug-in Priuses that it will unleash next year. A new redesigned Prius and Lexus luxury sedan will be unveiled in Detroit.

Toyota will also unveil a concept car – a battery-electric vehicle for city use that the company hopes to put into production by 2012. Sales were down by half in December.

How soon we forget! Save gas when it is expensive. Gulp it down when it is not. Now is the time to save on gas, BEFORE the next oil crisis comes.

Edmunds.com, an online car research service, estimates that, as a result of the drop in gas prices, a Prius owner must now wait more than eight years to recoup the extra cost of the vehicle in fuel savings, compared with 3.5 years when the gas price climbed above $4 a gallon last spring.

Meanwhile, Honda’s “Prius-Fighter” the Insight Hybrid is coming, GM’s Volt is on its way – sometime in late 2010, while Cadillac has the Converj which is expected in 2012. I wonder if that will turn out to be true, or not …

Source: Nikkei (sub req)

How cool is this?

Super eco-friendly Prius-maker, Toyota Motor Corp, has come up with a number of new plant-based resins that they can use to make automotive interior materials such as scuff plates, seat cushions, and so on. The new resins will be used in their new hybrid cars released in 2009.

Toyota aims to make 60% of the surface area in the interior of cars with parts made from these resins. Automotive interior parts are required to be higher in heat resistance and collision resistance than other resin products. Toyota also improved production technologies so mass productivity equivalent to those of petroleum-based resins can be achieved.

Toyota first adopted 100% plant-based plastic, Eco-Plastic, in 2003 for the spare tire cover and floor mat of the “Raum.”

Wow! A car you can grow in your back yard. Well, at least it’s a start.

I saw the 100 MPG Toyota Prius – Plug-in Hybrid Conversion in SF. What can I say? It’s a Toyota. It’s a Prius. It’s a hybrid. It goes a long long way on at tank of gas. Our local cheap gas stand is selling at $1.99/gal. One hundred miles for $2.00.

My first car was a 1960 VW Beetle. It got about 20 mpg or so and I paid about 30 cents for a gallon of gas. If my math is right, then my VW Bug in 1972 went about as far on $2 as this Toyota does 36 years later. And we wonder why Toyota is making money hand over fist while GM and Ford and Chrysler have their hands out.

I got to attend the 51st Annual Auto Show in San Francisco. I went for the intent of seeing what’s going on in the green world. Being in Northern California, I expected to see a whole lot more than I did. Still, I saw some. Some pics will follow in subsequent posts, including a $455,000 Porsche.

Here I discovered the reason why Toyota expects its version of the Fuel Cell vehicle to not only have zero emissions but also to get really really good mileage.

Take a look and see if you can figure out why, too.

TogetherGreen is an Audubon program funded by Toyota, that aims at helping people get involved in creating a brighter, healthier future. It’s a program that provides inspiration, leadership and opportunities that will make people aware and will persuade them to take action at home, in their communities and beyond to improve the health of our environment.

Sample projects that received funding include:

1. Engaging low-income students in middle schools to devise and implement energy saving plans (Denver, CO);
2. Constructing gardens to stem storm water overflows that carry pollutants and disease-laden sewage into homes and waterways (Pittsburgh, PA);
3. Involving the public in hands-on strategies for restoring vanishing wetlands vital to flood control (coastal Louisiana); and
4. Reducing bird fatalities caused by their attraction to the lights in high-rise buildings (Minneapolis, MN).

“Our biggest environmental problems can’t be solved unless we engage people from every ethnic, racial and economic community that makes up America and help them realize their power to make a difference in their own communities,” said Audubon President John Flicker. “These TogetherGreen Innovation Grants help local groups to engage people and to start achieving tangible conservation results at the same time”

Launched in the spring of 2008, a total of 41 projects in 24 states were selected from nationwide applicants to receive up to $1.4 million in TogetherGreen Conservation Innovation Grants, for the next five years the project will run. Many of them target inner-city and non-English speaking audiences that always seemed underserved by the environmental community.

For more info check out the press release