Toyota plans a plug-in hybrid Prius

Toyota, the world's biggest seller of gasoline-electric hybrid cars, intends to begin retail sales of a plug-in version of its Prius hybrid by 2011 as environmental concerns increase demand for fuel-efficient vehicles.

The company aims to sell "several tens of thousands" of plug-ins a year globally, Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada told reporters in Tokyo. Toyota will begin leasing the cars to governments and businesses, and aims to sign agreements covering 600 through the first half of 2010.

The company will also start selling a short-distance pure electric car in 2012. Nissan Motor, General Motors, Daimler and start-ups such as Tesla Motors are also developing vehicles that can run entirely or in part on electricity as governments push for vehicles that will reduce gasoline use and trim emissions of carbon dioxide.

Toyota's plug-in vehicle, which can be recharged using household electrical outlets, initially runs solely on electricity generated by a lithium-ion battery. After about 14 miles of driving, a gasoline engine kicks in to run with the battery on a hybrid system. The overall fuel economy is about 134 miles per gallon, Uchiyamada said.

The battery supplier for the plug-in hybrid is Panasonic EV Energy, a joint venture between Panasonic and Toyota. In the future, the carmaker may also buy from other suppliers such as Sanyo Electric, he said.

The pricing on the plug-in vehicle will be "affordable," Uchiyamada said. In the United States, kits to convert the Prius hybrid into a plug-in sell for about $10,000, and the price difference should be less than the conversion cost, he said.

Toyota did not provide details on the short-range electric vehicles. Sales of the pure electric car are expected to be "a lot less" than those for the plug-in, Uchiyamada said.

Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of Nissan, has said electric cars will make up at least 10 percent of global demand by 2020, assuming oil costs more than $70 a barrel.

GM plans to build as many as 60,000 Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric cars annually, starting in November 2010.