Toyota announced its PHV project during a press conference in Tokyo in July 2007. In total, about 20 units were produced that year, of which initially 4 came to Europe for the first road trials.
Toyota partnered with the French electricity group EDF to experiment with PHVs in France and in the UK. The cars have been provided to EDF employees, who intensively used them in real-life situations: day-to-day commute from home to work, weekend trips, etc. One aspect of this pilot has been the development of an innovative charging and invoicing system.
In 2009, as a critical next step towards broader commercialization, Toyota announced that it was expanding its road trials to fine-tune the technology, study the market, understand consumer expectations and prepare for a future launch. This requires more vehicles: starting at the end of this year, about 600 Prius PHVs will be produced, and about 200 will be delivered to selected partners and customers in Europe.
France will again be at the heart of the project: in collaboration with our partner EDF, about 100 PHVs will be leased to selected fleet customers and public bodies in Strasbourg, supported by charging points in users’ homes, the offices of business partners, in public parking lots and on public roads.
The other vehicles will go to the UK and about 10 other European countries, including Portugal, Germany and the Netherlands. The PHVs will be leased to public authorities and organizations as well as private companies, for 3 years.
PROJECT MILESTONES
| '07 | Project kicks-off with 20 units globally: - Japan: Trials on public roads
- USA: 2 units delivered to UCI and UCB, Universities in California
- EU: Road trials in France in partnership with French energy supplier EDF (3 vehicles) + 1 vehicle at TME
| Phase 1: First road trials |
| '08 | - EU: Extension of road trials to the UK with EDF Energy (1 unit)
|
| '09 | - Frankfurt Motor Show: New PHV concept is launched
- TMC starts producing more than 500 PHVs to be leased around the world
|
| '10>'12 | - Japan: TMC will lease 200 vehicles to designated users such as government ministries, local governments and corporations
- US: 150 units will go on trial
- EU:
- TME will lease more than 150 PHV's to selected fleet customers across Europe
- Around 100 of these 150 will be leased to selected fleet customers and public bodies in Strasbourg, France
- On top of France and the UK many other EU countries will initiate trials.
| Phase 2:
Limited lease project |
| '1X | - Full commercialisation
- Date not yet communicated
| Phase 3:
Mass-Marketing |
