Toyota and Honda hybrids for the US market are discussed in a WSJ article today -- copied below. The article repeats the usual out-dated canard about pure EV's not having a practical range.
July 9, 1999
Marketplace
Toyota Is Confident Electric Car
Will Spark Some Interest in U.S.
By FREDERIC BIDDLE
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Can Japanese auto makers overcome the previous backfires of electric cars in
the U.S.?
Toyota Motor Co., the world's third-largest car maker, is gearing up for the
U.S. launch of a next-generation "green" car called the Prius. Already sold in
Japan, the Prius will roll out here by the middle of next year. On a much
smaller scale, rival Honda Motor Co. plans to introduce its own model, the
Insight EV, in December.
What makes these cars different is that they are hybrids, running alternately on
a gas engine and a nearly noiseless electric motor. With a computer monitoring
conditions, the hybrid car's gas engine kicks in to give the car more juice when
needed. At slower speeds or when the car is idling, the electric motor usually
runs solo.
Among Toyota's print ads for the Prius: "It's gas, it's electric,
boogie-oogie-oogie-oogie," and "Gasolectric? Electroline?" Another: "Two
identities, no crisis."
With a big cabin, the Prius
(pronounced PREE-us) will
get at least 55 miles a
gallon at freeway speed,
Toyota says, and travel
850 miles between fill-ups
-- farther than nearly any
car on the road today.
Pricing the Prius around
$20,000 or more, roughly
the same as its best-selling
Camry, Toyota aims to sell as many as 20,000 cars in its first year here and in
Europe.
Honda says the Insight, which will get more than 70 miles to the gallon, will be
priced for less than $20,000. The company expects to sell fewer than 5,000
models in North America a year.
The timing for this could hardly be worse. The new cars will arrive smack in
the middle of a sport-utility vehicle craze, when American drivers are in love
with some of the biggest, most gas-guzzling vehicles since the '70s oil crisis.
And the projected sales of hybrid cars will barely move the needle of the
overall U.S. car and light-truck market, which is zooming toward record sales
this year of more than 16 million vehicles.
Still, it's progress. Since the internal-combustion engine became the industry's
choice, way back in the days of the Tin Lizzy, only a few thousand all-electric
vehicles have been sold in the U.S.
The modern generation of
electrics, such as General
Motors Corp.'s
teardrop-shaped EV-1,
have flopped with
consumers. They're largely
relegated to city
government and utility
fleets. Not only can
electrics barely complete a
typical Southern California
commuting day before
running out of power, they typically cost more than $30,000 and have to be
leased because no viable resale market exists.
In April, Honda canceled its EV-plus electric car. And in October, Edison
International says, it will close its Edison EV unit, which installs and maintains
most of the electric-charging stations in California and Arizona, partly citing the
outlook for electric cars. "We just don't see significant volumes," says Gloria
Quinn, a spokeswoman.
"Those two things in my mind indicate the consumer has strongly spoken," says
Thad Malesh, a senior consultant at J.D. Power and Associates, Agoura Hills,
Calif. While GM, Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler Corp. are still
soldiering ahead with electric vehicles, none foresees a sales breakthrough.
That's where the hybrids may come in. Auto makers argue that they represent
a compromise between the "zero-emission" vehicles California regulators want
and the cheap practical transportation machines consumers demand.
One-Month Test Drives
To convince consumers that driving a Prius drive doesn't feel that different from
driving a conventional car, Toyota is taking the unusual step of allowing Toyota
owners in 12 cities to take one-month Prius test drives in return for feedback.
Toyota needs to persuade two audiences: consumers and regulators. Like its
rivals, Toyota wants California and Northeastern states to encourage
low-emission hybrid cars, arguing that drivers will accept them more than
no-emission electrics.
Among the small group of California test-drivers, the Prius has gotten good
grades. "I could use this as my first car," says Cathy Malena, 44 years old,
who with her husband, Len, 47, has driven the Prius on short trips and
110-mile round-trip commutes from their Trabuco Canyon, Calif., home. "I'd
absolutely take this car over the Camry," of which she has owned three.
"It'll probably change driving habits," says David Nelson, a 59-year-old Yorba
Linda, Calif., carpenter who describes himself as "no environmentalist." The
Prius's disproportionately large cabin and snub nose produced the only serious
complaint from Mr. Nelson, who says that on a drive to San Diego, the wind
may have caused the car to oversteer. "On long trips, I'm not sure I would take
it," he says.
The often-quiet ride is what mainly sets the Prius apart from other boxy
Japanese compacts, test drivers say. At idle and certain starting conditions, the
Prius has no "idle roar" since only the battery is running. At hard acceleration,
the gas engine kicks in, producing normal rumble. Decelerating, the gas engine
sometimes cuts off again, making the car quiet as a golf cart. At times,
passengers have told him the Prius can "feel a lot like riding a monorail," Mr.
Nelson says.
But not being able to judge your speed by the sound of the engine "takes a little
getting used to," says Kirk Saunders, a 40-year-old architect in Laguna Beach,
Calif. He adds that "the mileage we got wasn't what we expected it to be." He
estimates he got no better than 34 miles per gallon.
The Prius doesn't require stops for recharging. So whenever shopping-mall
spectators approach his Prius, says Mr. Malena, "I get to tell them there's no
plug."
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