Toyota Motor is planning to launch home battery chargers for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles by the end of 2012. According to the company, the chargers will be compatible with any type of EV and will come in two types. One would be for setting up in a garage and the other would protrude from the exterior wall of a home.
Toyota hopes to sell around 30,000 units in the first year. Each electric car charger will have a price of about $2,405 (200,000 yen), including installation costs.
The company also said it will start selling Prius-based plug-in hybrids by early 2012 mainly in Japan, Europe and the United States, expecting to have sales of more than 50,000 units a year.
Unlike a a conventional hybrid, the new Prius has the possibility of being plugged in to enable longer-distance driving using only electricity. The car is expected to cost as little as $36,072 (3 million yen in Japan).
Besides this, Toyota, 0ne of the world’s largest automakers will release a model based on the tiny iQ in the United States, Europe and Japan, also in 2012.
