Toyota Motors to introduce home battery chargers by 2012: reports

Toyota Motors will introduce home battery chargers for electric and plug-in hybrid cars next year, the Nikkei business daily reported.

The company will produce two charger types, one designed to extend from the exterior wall of a home and the other made for installation in a garage. The chargers will be compatible with non-Toyota cars, and will be priced between several tens of thousands of yen to 200,000 yen, including installation costs, the report said.

In 2012, Toyota expects to sell a total of 50,000 plug-in hybrid vehicles in Japan, the US and Europe, in addition to several thousand electric cars. It expects its sales of home battery chargers to reach 20,000 to 30,000 units during this period.The Japanese government wants 2 million regular EV battery chargers and 5,000 high-speed chargers to be installed across the nation by 2020, Nikkei added.

Nissan Motor has installed charging equipment at all its 2,200 domestic dealerships in Japan, so as to enable the drivers to charge the car when the battery runs low.

Earlier in November, Nissan tied up with Mitsubishi Motor Co to allow drivers of their electric vehicles to share battery chargers at their 2,900 dealerships nationwide in a bid to increase the popularity and convenience of the eco-friendly cars.

According to a recent report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, plug-in electric vehicles, including plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles, have the potential to make up 9 per cent of auto sales in 2020 and 22 per cent in 2030 (1.6 million and 4 million vehicle sales respectively).