PHEVs are coming !

Right now, to get a plug-in hybrid (and it's usually a Toyota Prius), you have to spend anywhere from $8,000 to more than $25,000 to have your car converted to plug-in status.

It means, of course, that you can achieve that much-touted 100 mpg equivalent, given the cost of electricity and how much and how fast you drive. But the cost of conversion has to be taken into account and amortized over a number of years.

Now, according to a Reuters report from Tokyo, Toyota will start mass producing plug-in hybrids in 2012. We've already seen (and done) stories on their plug-ins coming next year, but those are mostly leases for government and corporate fleets. The only plug-in for the masses, on a near horizon, is the Chevy Volt and it's coming from a company that is, shall we say, having some problems.The Reuters report says the Toyota plug-in will run about $47,000, twice what a regular hybrid Prius costs. But the Volt is also supposed to be up in that $40,000-plus price point.

Source : The San Francisco Chronicle, by Michael Taylor, July 7th, 2009