"The plan, the Nikkei says, is for Toyota and production partner...

"The plan, the Nikkei says, is for Toyota and production partner Panasonic to build a new production line that will be able to make 200,000 li-ion batteries a year".

"There's no way Toyota can put li-ion cells in all of its hybrids from that one line, though, since the company sells over a million hybrids a year."

"Lithium-ion batteries are smaller, lighter and more energy dense than NiMH ones, but they're also more expensive."

Just gotta luv the selective conclusions drawn here. NiMH will hold a significant part of the market for the foreseeable future. Benz just put LiI in the new S AMG and NiMH in the new E AMG for example.

Increasing prices for both lithium & graphite will make future choices such as Toyota's interesting, and provide a background to higher La prices.

If you're looking for disruptive tech you probably should focus on graphene supercapacitors, at least 5 maybe 10 yrs hence. That will be a game changer.