Toyota Plug-In Strategy Favors Low Cost Over Long Range

PORTLAND, OR – Toyota Motor Corp.’s first plug-in hybrid vehicles will have a 10-mile (16-km) range under electric power, well short of the 40 miles (64 km) promised by General Motors Corp.’s first offering, the Chevrolet Volt.

But Toyota believes its strategy represents a better consumer-value proposition, because less range corresponds to a smaller, and, therefore, more-affordable version of the lithium-ion battery that serves as the core of PHEV technology.

The ...