Hybrid Car

All-Electric Cars’ the new Hybrid

Plenty of manufacturers now offer Hybrids - some based on licensed Toyota technology - but the real action, they say, is in the next generation of all-electric vehicles, which will do away with petrol altogether. A string of announcements has cemented all-electric cars’ status as the next big thing. In the latest, Mitsubishi Motors and Peugeot said yesterday they might co-operate on development of electric-vehicle power trains.

Yozo Hasegawa, author of Clean Car Wars, says all-electrics might indeed push Hybrids into obsolescence - though probably not for a decade at least. More to the point, the carmakers trumpeting all-electrics the loudest won’t necessarily rule the market for them. “They came late to Hybrids and are hoping electrics will be a leapfrog technology,” he says. Would-be leapers include Mitsubishi, Nissan-Renault and General Motors, all of which have electrics in development. But they will eventually have to go head-to-head with Toyota and Honda, the second-most successful hybrid maker.

The pair have been quiet about their all-electric plans - neither has an interest in speeding Hybrids‘ exit, after all - but will bring serious technology to the segment. Koji Endo, analyst at Credit Suisse, agrees: “If Toyota and Honda want to move into all-electric cars it will be relatively easy. An electric car is just a hybrid with the gas tank removed.”

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