DETROIT—It should be no surprise that Toyota is hopping aboard the soon-to-blossom electric city-car segment. At last year's New York Auto Show, Nissan announced it will have an electric city car, probably not unlike the Cube, and we drove examples of Subaru's R1e electric microcar as well as the Mitsubishi iMiev EV. At the recent L.A. Auto Show, Mini showed an EV Mini Cooper it will have on sale soon as well.

The Toyota FT-EV concept confirms the automaker will have its own micro EV on sale by 2012. The FT-EV is based on Toyota's hip new iQ, a car not yet available in the U.S., but one we've enjoyed test driving in Europe. The FT-EV is designed for "an urban dweller," and the company claims it can run up to 50 miles on a charge.

Toyota has accelerated its schedule for delivering production plug-in hybrids as well. In late 2009, Toyota will deliver 500 plug-in hybrids powered by lithium-ion battery packs. And of that 500, 150 will arrive in the U.S. for lease-fleet customers.

The first generation of lithium-ion packs were created at Toyota's Panasonic EV Energy Company (PEVE)—a joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic. During its development, Toyota developed the next-generation Prius, which was designed to package either a lithium-ion battery pack with plug-in capability or a nickel-metal hydride battery for the conventional hybrid system. It's just what we speculated more than a year ago on a trip to Japan to drive a prototype plug-in Prius. —Ben Stewart