Why Is Toyota Afraid To Tell Prius' Owners That It is Just Plain Stupid To Covert Them To Plug-in Operation With An Aftermarket Lithium Battery?

Implications: It is impossible to believe that either Toyota or lithium battery developer A123 think its a good idea to modify an existing Prius into a plug-in hybrid by having a dealer install a system based on an A123 battery. Toyota cannot stop its independent dealers from charging gullible environmental activist drivers of the Prius for charging them $10,000.00 to void their car's warranty absolutely. A123 has clearly not thought this through. If 1000 'conversions' are carried out and one fails due to battery failure then the Chevrolet Volt program could be an instant failure before it starts. In addition each Prius sitting in a dealer shop waiting for lithium battery or plug-in system repair will be indistinguishable from a failed Prius based on existing reliable nickel metal hydride battery technology. Finally, the complaints of the owners, not only about the huge costs and delays in getting service but in not getting the promised mileage will be national headlines.  

Analysis: According to A123 there are a 1000 pre-orders for retrofitting existing nickel metal hydride powered Toyota Prius hybrids with a $10,000 A123 lithium based plug-in hybrid power train with a range of 30 miles on a charge.

The gullible owners of perfectly good long term warranted Priuses are going to be very unhappy if they give up their warranties to get a maximum range of 30 miles of plug-in hybrid operation under ideal conditions.

The 30 mile range, of course, will only be on flat terrain at constant speed with no adverse driving conditions; the same constraints that will make the 41 mile range of the Chevrolet Volt an ideal not a reality.

Hybrid repairs and warranty service are not easily or widely available, but at least today's mass produced hybrids are made by global players that stand behind their vehicles.

Toyota will not stand behind any of its vehicles that have been modified to use a battery and or a power train which they did not design, manufacture, or install, nor should anyone rational expect Toyota to do so.

I doubt also whether insurers will extend coverage to these modified cars without, in the best case, a considerably larger premium than now paid.

Of course, all of the modified cars will be simply a giant 'beta' test of their batteries, and if anything at all whatsoever goes wrong it will mean a delay or a cancelation for the Chevrolet Volt program.

This whole foolish thing is clearly caused by the investors in A123 demanding that the company do this.

Note well that Toyota is ramping up its own in-house production of nickel metal hydride batteries to a capacity of one million per year by 2011, and that in that same year, 2011, it will have the capacity to make only 30,000 lithium batteries for its own in-house built plug-in hybrids. Toyota will be watching this test of A123's batteries also to see if it should make any lithium batteries at all.

The EV1 made in the 1990s had a range of 90 miles on a charge and it could go at 60 miles per hour. isn't the plug-in lithium hybrid a step backwards?

Of course it is.