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Old Toyota Camry Hybrid batteries find new life in Yellowstone

Beginning this fall, used hybrid batteries that would otherwise be recycled will get a second life in Yellowstone National Park. 208 nickel-metal hydride batteries are being retired from the Toyota Camry Hybrids they once helped power and will become part of an off-the-grid energy system at Yellowstone's remote Lamar Buffalo Ranch field campus. The Lamar campus provides field seminars and other education and research in the northeastern corner of the park. The energy stored in the battery packs will come from solar panels and micro-hydro turbines. The total storage capacity of the batteries is 85 kWh, which is sufficient to provide plenty of emissions-free power to the five buildings at the field campus. Toyota says this program essentially doubles the life of the batteries that are no longer suitable for driving. It's great to see the batteries get another life cycle before recycling, especially in a place where wild animals easily outnumbers the cars. The battery project is part of a larger partnership between Toyota and Yellowstone. Toyota has previously donated a RAV4 and $50,000 to support sustainability projects at the park. In addition to the energy system being implemented at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch, Toyota has taken part in similar energy projects. Beginning last year, Toyota dealers in Japan have been using hybrid batteries for power storage. Also, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama is testing a system to use hybrid batteries to power operations and for emergency backup power. Learn more in the press release from Toyota below. Buffalo and Bears and Batteries – Oh My! Toyota Brings Power to Yellowstone National Park June 04, 2014 Yellowstone...Where the Deer and the Antelope and the Prius Play Torrance, Calif. (June 4, 2014) – The nation's oldest National Park is ready for some new power. Toyota Camry hybrid batteries will soon power the Lamar Buffalo Ranch field campus in Yellowstone National Park. It's a new lease on life for the batteries and new, zero emission, energy option for the Park. Now that's a "bear-able" solution! The stationary distributed energy system will feature 208 used Camry Hybrid nickel-metal hydride battery packs and a total storage capacity of 85 kWh, more than enough pluck to power the five buildings on the Ranch field campus.

Does the Toyota Prius still matter?

Toyota remains incredibly proud of its green halo car, the Prius. On the company website, it calls the gas-electric car, "The hybrid that started it all." Chances are, if someone tells you to think of a hybrid car today, your first thought is going to be the Prius. Now a cultural icon, the Prius changed a lot of attitudes about what an efficient car is able to achieve. But the car is aging, despite numerous refreshes and model tweaks over the years, and sales dropped 11.5 percent last year. It's taken Toyota 25 years of ups and downs to get the Prius to where it is today, and we started wondering if that's too long for the car to remain viable in an era of 40+ mile-per-gallon non-hybrid cars and a plethora of plug-in competitors for the green car crown (we're not the only ones). Plus, Toyota is rapidly shifting its green focus away from the Prius and towards the hydrogen-powered Mirai fuel cell car. But if you ask Toyota representatives if the Prius is still a vital car in 2015 – and we did – you'll find that there's still a lot of love for the car that went before. For example, Geri Yoza is a Toyota national manager who spent years traveling all across the US teaching people about the Prius. The veteran of countless customer education sessions told AutoblogGreen that it took a long time for the Prius to "cross the technology chasm," and that it wasn't until about a decade after launch that the car became a common sight outside of the initial popularity hotspots. "It takes a while for people to become confident in the technology, to understand that it's been proven," she said. Now that the hybrid is ensconced in the public mind, it's time for the next step. "I think the Prius, the whole idea 'to go before,' was to go before the Mirai." Part of that precursor status is due to the fact that a lot of the Prius' powertrain technology has made the jump to the Mirai. When we asked Bob Carter, Toyota's senior vice president of automotive operations, if the Prius still matters, he had a clear answer: "My goodness, yes." "We've been selling hybrids for 25 years," he said, "but when you go back, we had said that the Prius and hybrid technology were a bridge to the future and we were very clear that it's going to be a very long bridge. Essentially, and I'm not an engineer, the Mirai takes the technology from the Prius and takes the ICE engine out and puts a fuel cell stack in.

California to stop buying GM, Toyota and Fiat Chrysler vehicles over emissions fight

WASHINGTON — California said on Monday it will halt all purchases of new vehicles for state government fleets from GM, Toyota and Fiat Chrysler and other automakers backing President Donald Trump in a battle to strip the state of authority to regulate tailpipe emissions. Between 2016 and 2018, California purchased $58.6 million in vehicles from General Motors, $55.8 million from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, $10.6 million from Toyota Motor and $9 million from Nissan. Last month, GM, Toyota, Fiat Chrysler and members of the Global Automakers trade association backed the Trump administration's effort to bar California from setting tailpipe standards, which are more rigid than Washington's proposed national standards. The automakers declined or did not immediately comment on California's announced ban on purchases of their vehicles. Starting in January, the state will only buy from automakers that recognize California's legal authority to set emissions standards. Those automakers include Ford, Honda, BMW AG and Volkswagen AG, which struck a deal with California in July to follow revised state vehicle emissions standards. "Car makers that have chosen to be on the wrong side of history will be on the losing end of CaliforniaÂ’s buying power," California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement. California purchased $69.2 million in vehicles from Ford over the three-year-period, $565,000 from Honda and none from the German automakers. The state also disclosed it will immediately no longer allow state agencies to buy sedans powered by an internal combustion engine, with exemptions for certain public safety vehicles. California's vehicle rules have been adopted by 13 other states. On Friday, California and 22 other U.S. states challenged the Trump administration's decision to revoke California's legal authority to set vehicle tailpipe emissions rules and require a rising number of zero emission vehicles (ZEV). The move follows a separate lawsuit filed in September by the states against the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration seeking to undo a parallel determination. In August 2018, the Trump administration proposed freezing fuel efficiency requirements at 2020 levels through 2026, reversing planned 5% annual increases. The Trump administrationÂ’s final requirements are expected in the coming months and are set to modestly boost fuel efficiency versus the initial proposal, with several automakers anticipating annual increases of about 1.5%.