Toyota is delaying introducing lithium-ion battery-powered hybrids because of safety concerns. Forbes reports that the Japanese automaker is hanging fire (so to speak) due to worries that the cells might overheat or explode. Toyota doesn't expect to have hybrids with Li-Ion batteries until 2011. They've also delayed plans for Tundra and Sequoia hybrids. Whether or not this will affect GM's hopes of lithium-ion powered Volt is yet to be seen. Meanwhile, commenting on an earlier TTAC post, Tesla spinmeister Darryl Siry claims their Roadster's Li-ion battery pack passed UN and DOT protocols for safety "when shipping" which which "can actually be harsher than safety when in a car."

`If we have the worst case coming out of Washington, all bets are off. We don't know how to get there without spending $6,000 or $7,000 per car.'' In his battle to kneecap the Senate bill designed to raise federal corporate average fuel economy standards, GM's Car Czar has added $4k to $5k per car to his original estimate of the legislation's impact on GM's costs. Lutz' numbers reflect a new, theoretical strategy for meeting the new, theoretical legislation: an all-hybrid lineup. Lutz told Bloomberg that GM's current hybrid system costs about $10k per vehicle. If used on all cars and trucks, the cost would fall to $6k to $7k. Alternatively, nothing. And what about the four percent per year mandate after the new standards are met? Lawmakers might as well mandate that cars "float four inches off the ground." Huh?

"There's a plug mounted in the bumper. When I'm on the road and I take the car to a hotel, I drive around the parking lot looking for a Coke machine. When I find one, I park close to it, so I can plug in. Then it takes six to eight hours to charge." Ladies and gentlemen, the plug-in hybrid has arrived (along with warm sodas and pissed-off Coca Cola reps). The San Francisco Chronicle reports that wealthy Prius owners are paying a Bay Area company called Hybrids Plus to convert their gas – nickel hydride-powered sedan into a lithium-ion battery-powered plug-in. The cost, including the car and an optional range extension pack: $60k. Despite concerns about fire safety, the conversion process appears to be legal. California Air Resources Board spokeswoman Karen Caesar: "We are not encouraging people to disassemble their Prii to turn them into plug-ins."

We've reported here about the huge surge in Toyota Prius sales over the last few months. In contrast, the number crunchers over at JD Power report that U.S. consumer interest in hybrid-powered automobiles has begun to fade. According to their second annual Alternative Powertrain Study, half of all new-vehicle shoppers polled (4k) are considering a hybrid. That's down from 57 percent of shoppers polled in their 2006 survey. Mike Marshall, director of JD's automotive emerging technologies unit, attributes the drop to the discrepency between inflated expectations and reality: "In the 2006 study, we found consumers often overestimated the fuel efficiency of hybrid-electric vehicles, and the decrease in consideration of hybrids in 2007 may be a result of their more realistic understanding of the actual fuel economy capabilities." In other words, the new EPA fuel economy calculations have hit hybrids hard. 

Ford and Rousch Racing– the folks who bring you the 800hp, V8-powered, rear wheel-drive Fusion NASCAR racer– are feeling the need. This time, they're teaming up with Ballard and Ohio State Universities to beat the land speed record for fuel cell-powered vehicles. Although you'd think a car named "Fusion" powered by a hydrogen fuel cell would holster a flux capacitor, the car is motivated by a 770hp electric motor. Autoblog Green provides no word on whether it'll be driving the front wheels, the rear wheels or all wheels, but this bad boy's got to crest 315mph to take the title. Call us upside down superstitious, but even though we get the historical allusion, we would have named it something other than "Fusion Hydrogen 999." Just sayin'. 

Yesterday, Ford CEO Alan Mulally announced that Ford would have plug-in hybrids for sale in "five to 10 years." Today, Consumeraffairs.com reports that FoMoCo's spinmeisters are touting hydrogen as the fuel of the future. We're talking about Ford, right? The same Ford that backpedaled on their 2005 promise to build 250k hybrids by the end of the [last] decade? The same Ford that "rethought" their 2000 promise to improve SUV fuel economy by 25 percent? The same Ford that promised alternate fuel vehicles for Europe and nowhere else? Naturally, today's round of attention-grabbing was carefully hedged with cunning caveats: hydrogen fuel storage limitations, public concerns, "if all things were perfect," etc. Except Honda already has a running hydrogen fuel concept, slated for production and public consumption in less than three years. Oh dear.