Via ecogeek.org, 11-07-2011
Now that Toyota has dominated the hybrid market for a decade, the automaker is finally coming out with an all-electric in the U.S. to compete with other leading automakers’ offerings. At a dealer meeting in Las Vegas, Toyota announced that it will launch the Scion iQ sometime next year.
The Scion iQ is known as the Toyota iQ outside the U.S. and has existed as a super efficient gasoline engine car in other countries for a few years now. The urban ultra compact EV will be a small four-passenger car that will have a 50 mile range, good for those who just need to get around town.
The car has a 3+1 seating arrangement to optimize seating room within the small car. Because of its smaller size, it will be interesting to see how much lower it’s priced compared to something like the LEAF, since we’ve recently seen that when it comes to EVs, price seens to be the biggest factor of all.
Through its partnership with Tesla, Toyota will be coming out with an all-electric RAV4 in 2012 as well.
