In a bid to bring greener vehicles to the consumer market, Toyota announces its plan to launch 21 new hybrid cars by the end of 2015 plus a new all-electric compact car by December. The Toyota eQ all-electric compact car will roll out with seating for four, a range of up to 100km on a single charge via its 12 kWh Li-Ion battery and claims to deliver the best electric power consumpton rate in the world, keeping bulk low while still delivering usable range. Eighty percent charge on the battery, Toyota claims, is to be achieved in just 15 minutes on DC while on 100V AC it could extend up to 8 hours.
Other key details to Toyota’s green effort will be wireless charging expected in 2013, thermal efficiency in hybrids, and a fuel-cell vehicle by 2015, where the fuel cell is expected to have the world’s highest power output density, and can deliver 3 kW/L, doubling Toyota’s current prototype’s rates.
