Toyota UK managing director Miguel Fonseca said future Toyota hybrids would continue to use petrol rather than diesel for the internal combustion element of the drivetrain. Fonseca said Toyota was still working on a miniaturised hybrid drivetrain for its new iQ city car, which will go on sale before the end of the year with conventional petrol or diesel engines. This won’t be coming to Europe – but Nissan will commercialise an electric car before the end of 2010, thanks to advances in Lithium Ion battery technology, said Pierre Loing, vice-president of product planning. Nissan has already piloted an electric city car in Japan called the Hypermini, and much of that technology will transfer to the new car – which will be an all-new model, not just an EV derivative of an existing model. Bringing EVs to market relies on “one or two technical breakthroughs” taking place – principally in terms of recharge cycles for the Lithium Ion batteries. Ultimately, Nissan will have a line-up of electric cars, as well as plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell cars, which will not be available until “no earlier than 2015”. read more
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