Toyota Hybrid Plans

Someday Toyota is going to release a Hybrid Van in the US. The only question is when. The ones they have been selling in Japan are smaller, than the current monster vans Toyota sells in the US. It's amazing how the Van Toyota sells in the US has grown from one based on their small truck, to one based on their medium car the Camry. The new Sienna redesign should come out in 2010 or 2011 model year, so we may see a Hybrid in 2009. My guess is the Prius will get refreshed with the latest technology, no other major changes for a year to make sure everything works, and then have new Hybrid models come out. I also expect Toyota will will wait one year after a model refresh to introduce a hybrid.

I was surprised that Toyota had some quality issues withe the first year of a new model. We bought a Toyota Corolla in 2004, and it had a couple of stupid design defects that were later fixed. One that annoys me especially, is the clock and be pushed into the panel. And my daughter after I told her tested it out, so I have a pushed in clock. And the clock does not work and the cost of a new module is $200, and since it's out of warranty Toyota refused to fix it. Annoying, and this is our third Corolla. Not to mention the damage this has done to me of Toyota's brand. It still did not stop us from buying a new Sienna (way over engineered and too many features), after carefully considering the alternatives.

Toyota between 2020 and 2030 will have Hybrid versions of every vehicle it manufactures. Toyota is also coming out with a plug-in version that will use Lithium Ion Batteries. Recently there have been reported shortages of Nimh batteries, which has caused shortages of the Prius.

Toyota also reportedly said after the introduction of the 2009 Prius in January, there will be no shortage of batteries. I am not sure if this means they are going to Lithium Ion, or they have built more Nimh factories. They are also going to produce the Prius in the US.