Toyota to Test Plug-In Prius at Xcel’s SmartGridCity

By Jeff St. John

SmartGridCity, Xcel Energy's (XEL) showcase smart grid project in Boulder, Colo., will test out some of the first plug-in Toyota (TM) Prius hybrids to come to North America.

Toyota will send 10 of its new plug-in hybrids to SmartGridCity in March 2010, the first wave of about 150 it hopes to test in United States next year. Toyota plans to bring the plug-in Prius to a broader market by 2012.

That's out of about 500 vehicles Toyota intends to deliver for testing with fleet customers in 2010. Other announced tests include about 100 plug-in Priuses going to French utility EDF (see Toyota's Plug-In Prius Heads for France).

In Boulder, the Priuses will be at the heart of a new research project by the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, a joint venture of the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Xcel is no stranger to plug-in vehicles. Last year it tested several models – including regular Prius hybrids retrofitted with plug-in capability – to test their ability to allow their batteries to be drawn upon when the utility needed power during peak demand times.

The question remains: What vehicle charging system will be put through its paces with the test Priuses? So-called "smart charging" is a big focus of Xcel and many other utilities that worry about managing the new loads that will come if thousands of plug-in hybrid or electric vehicles make their way into customers' garages and office parking lots (see Electric Vehicles Could Surpass Grid or Support It, IBM Tests Smart Charging in Denmark and A V2G Test: Pool Electric Cars for Grid Needs).

In SmartGridCity, one obvious candidate would be GridPoint, the well-funded smart grid software startup. It participated in previous smart charging tests with Xcel, as well as with utility Duke Energy, and bought Seattle-based smart charging startup V2Green last year (see GridPoint Gets $120M, buys V2Green and Laying the Grid Groundwork for Plug-In Hybrids).

Other charging startups include Ecotality, Coulomb Technologies and Better Place, the latter proposing a "battery-swapping" business plan in addition to charging batteries that remain in vehicles (see Ecotality and Nissan Team on EV Charging Tech, Coulomb Bags $3.75M For Electric-Car Charging and Better Place and Ontario Launch Project).

Comments

[pftittl:]

Hope Ford is working on a similar product and ready to challenge...

Oct 22 09:04 AM

[ECONOMICS 101:]

Mike Klander and Toyota's Smart Grid City initiative have something in common.
They both believe that is the way to go.
"The other car manufacturers such as GM, Ford and Chrysler better pay attention and do something to stay competitive" says Mike Klander.

Oct 22 09:29 AM

[jerrydd:]

Aerovirment did this 15 yrs ago and was in Ford EV pickups I believe. They also did fast, 15minute charging too.

As EV's already have 50-200kw inverters in them it's fairly easy to modify them to do this. It also means it has a fast charger too built in.

All they really need is a cell phone controller and a plug strong enough to handle the power.

As Toyota's Synergy hybrid drive isn't compatible with speeds over 40mph on electric it should be interesting how they pull it off.

Others converted Prii to plug in hybrids shaming them to finally offer it after they said it couldn't be done. They could have done this yrs ago.

Oct 22 09:52 AM

[a. palmer jr.:]

For some reason Toyota didn't want drivers to get too good mileage. Maybe they had some kind of sweetheart deal with oil companies. Anyway, it took individuals in small shops to prove it could be done, so now Toyota can take credit for this technology in their ads.

Oct 22 09:35 PM

[Check Engin...:]

This is great news. I have a '08 Prius and love it. I can't wait for a plug-in Prius to be available so I can upgrade. I would also consider an EV if the range was suitable for city driving. That way I could drive the EV around town and the Prius on the highway...

Oct 23 02:17 AM