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This article posted by "hill" in Prius Chat forum
I have hijacked it to post in this forum.

Link: http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-hybri ... post578460

Fighting Words
Mr. Lutz then took on naysayers of GM's advanced technology plans -- throwing barbs equally at competitors, environmentalists, the oil industry, and Democrats. The most direct attack was levied at Toyota. Lutz referred to comments made by his counterpart at Toyota, Kazuo Okamoto, executive vice president of R&D and product development. Okamoto questioned GM's ability to deliver on its plans for the Chevy Volt at the recent Tokyo Auto Show. The two companies have been waging a war of words over competing plans for hybrid and electric vehicles. According to Lutz, Okamoto accused GM of using the Volt concept as a marketing ruse, and chatacterized the lithium battery-powered Volt as "completely wacky" and "nonsense

Hmmm, Toyota's corporate guys such as Kazuo Okamoto,does not comment lightly in public using these words.

Toyota has been working dilligently in enhancing its electric power only driving range for its soon to come out Prius LiOn powertrain, but so far reliable battery alone cruising range has been limited to about 30 miles.

Interesting to see if GM can deliver this usable range on the Volt as stated. Apparently Toyota Scientists do not think so.

We'll certainly see in 2010 when GM is still planning on introducing the Volt. They state the Volt will be manufactured in a separate division such as Saturn and the Present head of the R&D dept will be the first CEO of this new division. Aside of the development of the new batteries required they are redesigning all other accessory systems, including the aux pwr-plant and the A/C system. (for low power draw)
They want to get to 60 miles of city and highway driving without the use of the APU.