Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Toyota's U.S. chief says the future will be all hybrid

Automaker hopes high fuel prices prod drivers from gas guzzlers to more efficient vehicles.

Greg Bensinger / Bloomberg News

Toyota Motor Corp.'s North American chief said vehicles powered by gasoline-electric hybrid engines will dominate U.S. roads as fuel prices continue to rise.

"Eventually, everything will be a hybrid," said Jim Press, president of Toyota Motor North America, in an interview Tuesday in New York. Hybrids have been driving Toyota's growth in the U.S., he said.

Toyota, Japan's largest automaker, would benefit from growing consumer acceptance of the technology. So far this year, hybrids have accounted for just 2.3 percent of all cars and light trucks sold in the U.S. while demand has grown by 60 percent.

Toyota sells three out of every five hybrids purchased in the U.S., most of them Prius models.

Toyota executives have said they expect at least 175,000 Prius hybrids to be sold in North America this year, up from about 109,000 in 2006. Hybrids reduce fuel use and cut emissions by combining a gasoline engine, an electric motor with a battery pack and brakes that capture energy from stopping.

"The Prius is the forerunner," Press said. "It's going to be like the Model T when you look back," he said, referring to the ubiquitous, low-cost Ford Motor Co. vehicle produced more than 80 years ago.

Rising gasoline prices have also driven consumers into newer types of vehicles, such as crossover sport-utilities, and away from large SUVs, said Press. "You don't buy a car for image any longer that's a big gas guzzler," he said.

There are currently 12 hybrids available, including the Escape SUV from Ford Motor Co. and the Civic hybrid from Honda Motor Co.

The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. rose 28 percent this year to $2.98, according to the American Automobile Association. This is the third straight summer that gasoline prices in the United States have topped $3.

The Toyota City, Japan-based automaker's American depositary receipts fell $1.22, or 1 percent, to $125.71 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have dropped 6.4 percent this year.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070711/AUTO01/707110343/1148

Hybrids will help, but that's not the answer.

I would love to see Toyota with a fuel alternative instead of a hybrid. The hybrid craze will only last so long...

Hybrids will help, but that's not the answer.

I would love to see Toyota with a fuel alternative instead of a hybrid. The hybrid craze will only last so long...

From what I've heard, they will be using the same basic technology in their hybrids now on their future alternative fuel vehicles, including hydrogen fuel cell. So you can still call the future hydrogen Toyota/Lexus a hybrid too.

Hybrids will help, but that's not the answer.

I would love to see Toyota with a fuel alternative instead of a hybrid. The hybrid craze will only last so long...

I bet it will begin losing steam when people have to start replacing and disposing hybrid batteries, or widespread hybrid hardware failures rear their ugly head. Or maybe when people start realizing that hybrids don't necessarily return the great gas mileage they're expecting.

By then, diesels will be gaining momentum in the states, and people will realize that they're a much simpler solution that returns great mileage with a TON of torque.

From what I've heard, they will be using the same basic technology in their hybrids now on their future alternative fuel vehicles, including hydrogen fuel cell. So you can still call the future hydrogen Toyota/Lexus a hybrid too.
Now, that would be interesting... :thumbup:

From what I've heard, they will be using the same basic technology in their hybrids now on their future alternative fuel vehicles, including hydrogen fuel cell. So you can still call the future hydrogen Toyota/Lexus a hybrid too.
that would be very nice!!!! it's good that toyota is already several steps ahead!

I bet it will begin losing steam when people have to start replacing and disposing hybrid batteries, or widespread hybrid hardware failures rear their ugly head. Or maybe when people start realizing that hybrids don't necessarily return the great gas mileage they're expecting.

By then, diesels will be gaining momentum in the states, and people will realize that they're a much simpler solution that returns great mileage with a TON of torque.

you forgot the midgrade to premium fuel price for diesel, weak hp, weak acceleration, crazy emission system a diesel car needs just to pass, and it still relies heavy on petroleum

you forgot the midgrade to premium fuel price for diesel, weak hp, weak acceleration, crazy emission system a diesel car needs just to pass, and it still relies heavy on petroleum

Not all diesels have weak hp and weak acceleration. :uh:

Not all diesels have weak hp and weak acceleration. :uh:

The vast majority are slow and weak. There is none as fast as the LS 600h L or GS 450h.

Diesels are the OLD way. Period. Hybrids are a true advancement in technology and run much cleaner.

Europe knows, Hybrids are going to be the majority of Lexus sales soon.:)

I don't feel like hybrid technology is any more of a "band-aid" than diesel is. Both still require dependency on oil, but have different philosophies and operating aspects.

The only way to really improve anything is an alternative power source all together. I feel like the hybrid concept in itself will probably be widely used in the future because it essentially allows for the consumption of less of anything- gas, diesel, hydrogen, etc. A hybrid/hyrdrogen combinaton powertrain would remove ALL dependency on oil and also use less hyrdogen.

Hybrid technology is here to stay, it's oil that isn't.

Hybrids will help, but that's not the answer.

I would love to see Toyota with a fuel alternative instead of a hybrid. The hybrid craze will only last so long...

What roborapta said. Originally, yes, hybrids were meant to be a stepping stone. Then you start to realise that hybrid technology can be applied to anything that comes along. Take a conventional version (hydrogen ICE, petrol, diesel, E85 etc) and the hybrid version of that will get better mileage.

The next step would be plug-in hybrids which would allow us to slowly reduce our oil consumption even further and start using more and more on the electric side. Hell, Andy Frank (UofC) modified a Suburban (the old boxy one from the late 90s) to a plug-in hybrid. You know what the engine size of that Suburban was? 1.9 litre from a Saturn! Yet it was more efficient and had better acceleration than the original before conversion.


I bet it will begin losing steam when people have to start replacing and disposing hybrid batteries, or widespread hybrid hardware failures rear their ugly head. Or maybe when people start realizing that hybrids don't necessarily return the great gas mileage they're expecting.

By then, diesels will be gaining momentum in the states, and people will realize that they're a much simpler solution that returns great mileage with a TON of torque.

Don't hold you breath ;). It's been 10 years since the first Prius was launched and our Japanese correspondents haven't told us about any widespread Prius battery failure. Note that the original Prius are running on D-Cell batteries. Yup D-Cells... not the NiMH ones on the newer models. So that's really old technology and it's still running. Or what about the RAV4 EVs which have greater battery charge/discharge? Those are still running ok.

The vast majority are slow and weak. There is none as fast as the LS 600h L or GS 450h.

I beg to differ, none? BMW 335d vs. GS450h and LS600h L.

286 hp, 427lb ft. tq.

http://www.worldcarfans.com/features.cfm/featureid/1070316.001/country/gcf/wcf-test-drive-bmw-335d

Diesels are the OLD way. Period. Hybrids are a true advancement in technology and run much cleaner.


I never refuted that.

What roborapta said. Originally, yes, hybrids were meant to be a stepping stone. Then you start to realise that hybrid technology can be applied to anything that comes along. Take a conventional version (hydrogen ICE, petrol, diesel, E85 etc) and the hybrid version of that will get better mileage.

The next step would be plug-in hybrids which would allow us to slowly reduce our oil consumption even further and start using more and more on the electric side. Hell, Andy Frank (UofC) modified a Suburban (the old boxy one from the late 90s) to a plug-in hybrid. You know what the engine size of that Suburban was? 1.9 litre from a Saturn! Yet it was more efficient and had better acceleration than the original before conversion.




Don't hold you breath ;). It's been 10 years since the first Prius was launched and our Japanese correspondents haven't told us about any widespread Prius battery failure. Note that the original Prius are running on D-Cell batteries. Yup D-Cells... not the NiMH ones on the newer models. So that's really old technology and it's still running. Or what about the RAV4 EVs which have greater battery charge/discharge? Those are still running ok.

The batteries in the one Lexus GS450H at the Taste of Lexus Event last year in NYC were depleted after numerous runs on the autocross. Will this be a problem across the board for those who drive these performance hybrids in a spirited manner?

no motor can still rival an electric motor in terms of efficiency (90+%), emissions if any?, mechanical simplicity. Its only weak link is the battery technology, if higher capacity, lower weight, smaller size batteries can be designed they are many times more viable and you just charge the thing at your house. At least batteries can be recycled unlike the tons of CO CO2 NOx gases a car puts out over its lifetime

The highest efficiency any type of combustion engine has ever achieved is a gas turbine by GE that uses a complicated array of heat recovery, steam generator systems along with the gas turbine to recover and reuse lost heat, and it stopped at 60% efficiency. Used in the power generation industry.

http://www.ge-energy.com/prod_serv/products/gas_turbines_cc/en/h_system/index.htm

Use that to generate the electricity, use an electric motor to drive yourself around

Hybrids will help, but that's not the answer.

I would love to see Toyota with a fuel alternative instead of a hybrid. The hybrid craze will only last so long...

No one knows how long gasoline/electric hybrids will be around but in my opinion they're gonn be around for awhile at least 50 to 100 years maybe? Toyota is working real hard on the next form of engine propulsion...

Hybrid cars are here to stay. Asian car companies are investing heavily in it and producing products from it. American car companies are now trailing asian carmakers and will do anything to stay with or surpass them. Id say its gonna stick around for a good 20 years until the domestic companies come out with hydrogen cars. I think thats what will save them from being completley dominated. I think I read somewhere that GM moved a crap load of engineers from other projects to work on hydrogen cars. Plus I believe there is a new system that does all the fuel conversion in the car, so no need for a gas/hydrogen station. That whole plugging your vehicle into an outlet is a bad idea. Not only will your electricity bill go up but your just taxing your local power grid to work harder. Not to mention the majority of power plants are COAL plants. So your only moving the pollution elsewhere, not eliminating it.

I cant wait to see all the Lexus being hybrids (petrol-electric or diesel-electric or hydrogen-electric), I wouldn't mind seeing a hybrid-diesel IS (seeing they have a diesel already only for Europe) would be nice. Imagine the mpg (50-60) and how low the CO2 (probably like 100 g / km) would be with who knows how much horsepower (+200) *drools* and torque. Something like that would be cleaner, more powerful and faster than a Prius. Call it like the IS***dh, something like that I think people would go for (thats just me).

I just hope before 2011 there will be a hybrid LX, GX and SC.