Toyota to launch home electric car chargers in 2012-Nikkei

TOKYO Feb 20 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp will launch home battery chargers for electric and plug-in hybrid cars next year as it starts selling new models of environmentally friendly cars, the Nikkei business daily reported on Sunday.

The chargers, which will be compatible with non-Toyota cars, will come in two types, the Nikkei reported, citing company sources. One would extend from the exterior wall of a home and the other would be for setting up in a garage.

The company expects to sell 20,000 to 30,000 units in the first year, with each costing about several tens of thousands of yen to 200,000 yen ($2,405) including installation costs, the Nikkei added.

Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, has said it would begin selling a Prius-based plug-in hybrid by early 2012 mainly in Japan, the United States and Europe, targeting sales of more than 50,000 units a year.

The car, which unlike a conventional hybrid can be plugged in to enable longer-distance driving using only electricity, is expected to cost as little as 3 million yen in Japan, the company has said.

In the field of battery electric vehicles, Toyota plans to begin selling in 2012 a model based on the tiny iQ in the United States, Japan and Europe. (Reporting by Chisa Fujioka) ($1=83.16 Yen)