Toyota FT-EV
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Toyota announced today that it will display the Toyota FT-EV concept at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, January 11 – 25, hinting that it might offer an urban all-electric commuter vehicle in the next few years. The FT-EV concept shares its platform with the company’s minicar, the Toyota iQ.
Toyota introduced the gas-version of the iQ in Japan in November 2008, and plans to roll out the minicar to Europe this month. Plans for North America are undetermined. The iQ is larger than the quintessential minicar, the Smart Fortwo, but not by much. Its wheelbase is a little more than five inches longer, and on the whole, the car is only about a foot longer than the Smart—11.4 inches to be exact. The iQ is a four-passenger vehicle while the Smart only carries two.
The electric version on display at the Detroit Auto Show, the Toyota FT-EV concept, offers driving range of 50 miles, according to Toyota.
“Last summer’s four-dollar-a-gallon gasoline was no anomaly. It was a brief glimpse of our future,” said Irv Miller, group vice president of environmental and public affairs at Toyota. The company is expected to dabble with pure electric and smaller vehicles like the iQ, but conventional gas-electric hybrids, like the Prius, are considered Toyota’s long-term core powertrain technology.
Corporate B-roll footage of the Toyota FT-EV electric city car.
Last year, Toyota announced that it planned to sell one million gas-electric hybrids per year sometime during the early 2010s. To accomplish this, Toyota is expected to launch as many as 10 new hybrid models in the next few years. The company has not made any firm commitments to bring an electric car to market.
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n/a MPG n/a L/100km
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BODY TYPE:
Coupe
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TECHNOLOGY:
Electric
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BASE MSRP:
n/a
Toyota FT-EV Photos
Open wheel wells spell d r a g, drag.
Come on already! Zinc-silver batteries, hydrogen, whatever. Let's get a fuel source where a car can run on something other than gasoline and deliver for once! These small vehicles are a joke! Give us full-sized vehicles that kick booty and then we'll be talking. People want vehicles that fit them, not these mini-European roll-outs!
They must be joking with these min-prototypes. Fire these guys and get on with what consumers want, with the technology to make it happen.
True Jeddy, people want full size vehicles, but you have to start somewhere. Better they start small than not start at all. I live in a pretty dense city (LA) and I know quite a few people that would consider driving something like this.
Jeddy, I can't speak for anyone else, but I personally want a car just like this. I have a two car household. I drive a small car to work. The small car gets lots of miles. My wife, who stays at home with the kids, has a big SUV. The SUV mostly sits in the garage. I am eagerly waiting for someone to make an affordable electric car that I can use as my commuter car.
I find it frustrating when people insist that a viable next generation car needs to be a big all purpose behemoth. There is certainly a market for that. But there is also plenty of market for cars that just get people to and from work every day. Something like 90% of all passenger automobile trips are single occupant commuter trips.
I agree. Start with small cars and when we've improved batteries technology, make bigger cars.
I see that "Jeddy" spurred quite a reaction! I'm sympathetic to Jeddy's remarks, although I don't agree. This Toyota concept is, clearly, not the end-point of development of alternative fuel vehicles; it's just the start, or at least Step 2. It's a good step in the right direction. An upgrade to this concept, say seating four people, with a range of 75 - 100 miles (120 - 160 km), would generate a lot of interest. We can already see alternative vehicles dropping in price and becoming more functional.
Toyota is my favourite car. Earlier in my childhood I used to collect all the pictures of it. Usually I downloaded them from http://rapid4me.com - rapidshare search. Now I have a dream to earn enough money to buy the latest Toyota model. Hope soone it'll come true
Toyota is my favourite car. Earlier in my childhood I used to collect all the pictures of it. Usually I downloaded them from http://rapid4me.com - rapidshare search. Now I have a dream to earn enough money to buy the latest Toyota model. Hope soone it'll come true
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