Toyota Continues Its Plug-in Hybrid Testing With EDF and City of Strasbourg

Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid Powertrain

Toyota, French energy provider EDF, and the City and the Urban Community of Strasbourg launched a large-scale, 3-year Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle demonstration in Strasbourg. The project involves about 100 Prius Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles (PHVs) as well as a dedicated charging infrastructure for the use of public and private partners in Strasbourg and its region. It has received support via the Research Fund managed by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency ADEME.

Based on the third-generation Prius (earlier post), the new Prius Plug-in Hybrid (earlier post) is equipped with a lithium-ion battery pack. The plug-in has an electric range of up to 20 km (12 miles) at speeds up to 100 km/h (62 mph). CO2 emissions in the European homologation combined cycle are 59 g/km.


Cutaway of the battery pack. Click to enlarge.
This project is part of a global Toyota project involving 600 Prius Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles that will also be deployed in Japan, the US, Canada and Australia. Toyota’s main objective is to further investigate the technology and performance of PHVs.

In the context of the EDF-Toyota partnership, European road trials of Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles started in France in the autumn of 2007 and were expanded to the UK in 2008.

EDF’s objective is to evaluate different operational options for the charging infrastructure. The demonstration will allow receiving feedback on the consumers’ acceptance of this new driving concept, in preparation for broad commercialization in the future.

For this demonstration, EDF, with the operational support of its subsidiary Electricité de Strasbourg (ES), will ensure, within the context of a technical and financial partnership with all stakeholders, the set-up of more than 150 charging points at users’ homes, at the private parking of partner companies, in public parking lots and on public roads.

Some vehicles use an innovative charging system developed by EDF, able to control the communication between the plug and the vehicle, while ensuring safe charging. The objective is to facilitate the identification of the vehicle and invoicing of the consumed energy. In addition, German energy provider EnBW (Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, EDF Group), will extend the program to Baden-Württemberg, Germany, by demonstrating ten PHVs and their dedicated charging infrastructure.

As partner of the demonstration project, the City and the Urban Community of Strasbourg will lease five PHVs. They have ensured the set-up of public charging points and charging points along public roads and provide a subsidy to the local car sharing company to lease three PHVs. The remaining vehicles will be leased to various public institutions and private companies.

For ADEME, this project is part of its research demonstrators program, the purpose of which is to test future technologies allowing the reduction of greenhouse gases. This programme is one of eleven projects selected in a call for interest in the Demonstrators Fund on low-emission vehicles launched by ADEME in 2008.

The question remains, "How long until Toyota offers this vehicle to the public"?

Source: Green Car Congress