Toyota Motor Corp, maker of the world's best-selling gasoline-electric car, says extensive US consumer tests are needed before it offers hybrids that can be recharged at household outlets for limited all-electric driving.
``There is a consumer market at some price-point for plug- ins,'' Bill Reinert, national manager for advanced vehicle technology at Toyota's U.S. unit, said in an interview yesterday. ``We just don't yet know the size of that market.''
Toyota's caution reveals a difference in approach between the Japanese automaker, which has sold more than 800,000 Prius hybrids globally since 1997, and General Motors Corp., which wants to build as many of 60,000 Volt plug-in electric cars in the model's first year, people with knowledge of GM's plans said earlier this week.
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