Toyota in collaboration with its customer service IT company, Toyota Media Service Corporation, has developed a tool to support easy home-based charging of the Prius PHV plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHV), due for launch next year, and electric vehicles (EVs).
Toyota Housing Corporation, Toyota’s house construction and design subsidiary, will start sales of the tool, the H2V Manager, in January 2012. H2V stands for ‘home to vehicle’.
PHV or EV users can connect (wired or wireless) to the H2V Manager from a home PC, television or smartphone to set or adjust their PHV or EV charging start time as well as check household electric power consumption. The same operations can be performed remotely with a smartphone, through the Toyota Smart Center.
When necessary, the H2V Manager automatically interrupts PHV or EV charging when household power demand spikes, and then resumes charging when there is spare power capacity. This function prevents circuit breakers from cutting off power supply when a large number of home appliances are used simultaneously, pushing electricity consumption beyond the home’s maximum voltage.
Toyota Housing Corporation plans to sell a line of household PHV and EV chargers consisting of a standard charger, a wall-mounted charger and a pole-mounted charger. The H2V Manager, compatible with all these chargers, has a suggested retail price of JPY52,290 (US$679), excluding installation. The expected starting price of a H2V Manager and charger package is JPY157,500 yen ($2,044) including installation.
An H2V Manager will be shown at the Toyota booth in the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association-sponsored Smart Mobility City 2011 exhibition at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show from 30 November to 3 December.
