Toyota, EDF Team Up For London Plug-In Hybrid Test

As the automotive giants gear up to launch their next-gen green cars in 2009 and 2010, more and more are rolling out trials to test out how the vehicles will perform with the power grid. This time it’s in and around London, where Toyota is partnering with EDF Energy to install and test 40 plug-in vehicle charging stations.

The cars being tested in London are supposed to be the next-generation plug-in versions of Toyota’s much loved Prius. About 50 EDF Energy employees will cruise around in the cars, testing out how well the car works in the urban environment and to evaluate the usability of the charging stations. They’ll also get to see how well the billing system, which will charge ‘by the charge.’

The point of the London test program, as well as similar test programs in Berlin and Oslo, is not just to test the viability of plug in hybrid cars, but also to test what they are being plugged in to. There are tens of thousands of cars on the streets of any major city, and if even a small percentage of these cars were to be charging at the same time, you can probably imagine what the increased demand could do to an already taxed electrical system.

The trial is similar to a test program that Toyota did last Fall in France with EDF’s parent company, Electricité de France; the London tests are a way for Electricité de France to expand its vehicle charging capabilities in other markets.

A successful test of the new charging stations could hopefully lead London “one step closer to making our ambition of becoming a number one location for low-carbon vehicles” John Hutton, British Secretary of State for Business told the Financial Times. For London it will increase the number of car charging stations on city roads; Mayor Boris Johnson has vowed to add more stations over the coming years.

loading

Comments have been disabled for this post