GM Inside News Forum - View Single Post - Lutz says "no plug-in hybrid race" between Toyota, GM; Toyota to Debut Plug-in First

mechgmguy · 08-29-2008, 11:16 AM

this whole thread has gone way beyond the intended scope of this article. The point lutz is making is that the plug in prius and the volt are still on similar timelines and that one isnt coming out a year or so before the other one.

The other point (which im very surprised no one has brought up) is that the major advantage of the volt is the Li-ion battery. The pruis uses NiMH which does not hold the power of the Li-ion battery (and NiMH is also dramatically worse for the environment fyi) Hence why the range differences or 7-10 miles vs 40 miles.

Im not sure but I beleive that the plug in prius will still be NiMH and toyota has stated that they will be looking into Li-ion batteries, but they have invested far too much money in niMH to give up on it just yet. This is a marketing decoy by toyota to try and steal the volt's thunder, as toyota isnt really going to debut anything new.

The VUE 2-mode plug-in is due on the streets available to the public in 2009 (before the prius plug-in), but im not sure which battery system this will use (probably NiMH).

So this article is just Lutz trying to defer the toyota marketing machine from stealing the thunder away from GM...

08-29-2008, 11:16 AM	#44 (permalink)
mechgmguy 2.5L Iron Duke Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Canada Drives: 07 GP GT 3.8LSC Posts: 27	Re: Lutz says "no plug-in hybrid race" between Toyota, GM; Toyota to Debut Plug-in Fi this whole thread has gone way beyond the intended scope of this article. The point lutz is making is that the plug in prius and the volt are still on similar timelines and that one isnt coming out a year or so before the other one. The other point (which im very surprised no one has brought up) is that the major advantage of the volt is the Li-ion battery. The pruis uses NiMH which does not hold the power of the Li-ion battery (and NiMH is also dramatically worse for the environment fyi) Hence why the range differences or 7-10 miles vs 40 miles. Im not sure but I beleive that the plug in prius will still be NiMH and toyota has stated that they will be looking into Li-ion batteries, but they have invested far too much money in niMH to give up on it just yet. This is a marketing decoy by toyota to try and steal the volt's thunder, as toyota isnt really going to debut anything new. The VUE 2-mode plug-in is due on the streets available to the public in 2009 (before the prius plug-in), but im not sure which battery system this will use (probably NiMH). So this article is just Lutz trying to defer the toyota marketing machine from stealing the thunder away from GM...