Gojirra99

Toyota plans all gas-electric vehicles by 2012

October 25, 2002

BY JOHN LIPPERT
BLOOMBERG NEWS

Toyota Motor Corp., the world's third-largest automaker, plans to use gasoline-electric hybrid engines in all vehicles by 2012 to increase fuel efficiency and reduce tailpipe emissions, an executive said.

The gasoline-electric system emits as much as 40 percent less carbon dioxide than traditional internal-combustion engines, said Masatami Takimoto, managing director for engine engineering, in an interview at a Detroit conference. Toyota was the first to sell a hybrid, with the Prius car in 1997. The company sold 5.9 million cars and trucks last year, including 36,928 hybrids.

Automakers want to cut emissions as governments tighten pollution rules, and some rivals such as General Motors Corp. are focusing on fuel cells rather than hybrids. Toyota is the only automaker capable of soon building enough hybrids to overcome the current $3,000-a-vehicle cost disadvantage against traditional cars and trucks, said Fitch Ratings analyst Chris Struve.

"The only way to bring costs down is to increase production," said Struve, who is based in Chicago and studies the effect of new technology and environmental rules on automakers. "If they can pull it off, their fuel economy would be beautiful and they'd never have to worry about emissions."

The Prius, sold in the U.S., Japan and Europe, combines an internal-combustion engine and an electric motor and gets about 50 miles per gallon of gasoline. Toyota also sells hybrid models of the Crown sedan, Estima minivan and Coaster bus in Japan. Honda Motor Co. is the only other automaker to sell gasoline-electric models, with the two-seat Insight and a version of the Civic car.

Toyota plans to use much of the technology it's developing for hybrids on fuel-cell vehicles, which the automaker expects will be mass-produced by 2010, Takimoto said. Fuel cells generate electricity in a chemical reaction that combines hydrogen and oxygen, and under ideal conditions emit only water vapor.

"Hybrids are our core technology for the solution of environmental problems," Takimoto said. Toyota is considering how to use hybrid engines in vehicles ranging from sport-utilities to sports cars. Takimoto didn't say how much the automaker expects to spend on the effort.

Toyota expects to sell 300,000 hybrids annually through its own dealerships by 2007, Takimoto said. That's two years later than the company indicated in previous statements. That number could be doubled or tripled by sales of the technology to other companies, Takimoto said.

Nissan Motor Co., Japan's third-largest automaker, last month said it would buy hybrid-engine parts from Toyota starting in 2006. General Motors, the world's biggest automaker, also has asked about buying Toyota's technology, Takimoto said.

General Motors spokesman Scott Fosgard said the company has had talks with Toyota about buying hybrid engines. No decision has been made, he said.

Toyota expects to announce plans for more hybrid models in January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Jim Press, chief operating officer of the automaker's North American sales unit, said in July.

Hybrids boost fuel economy and reduce emissions by meshing a gasoline engine and an electric motor. When the vehicle is accelerating rapidly, the electric motor supplements the gas engine. When the vehicle is slowing down, the gas engine shuts down and the energy generated during braking recharges the batteries for the electric motor.

The Prius had the best U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fuel-economy rating for 2002-model compact cars, with 52 miles per gallon in city driving and 45 mpg on the highway, the agency said in a release two weeks ago. The Insight was highest among all vehicles, with 57 mpg in city driving and 56 mpg on the highway.

LexusLuver

by 2012 Toyota will easily be #1 in sales.

I wonder how Toyota plans on building all these hybrids.
How does GM take the news? They were so sure that Toyota hybrids were halocars. Guess Toyota plans on losing 100X more selling hybrids than GM does selling the Corvette.

XeroK00L

Speaking of halo cars, Toyota should definitely bring out the Volta as an icon of the entire hybrid lineup. It'll be then that people start looking at hybrids as not just something fancy and geeky but also sexy, exotic and immensely desireable.

Jujharoo

My next car is going to be a Hybrid.

Dynasty SC

please dear god, toyota bring back a REAL sports car... at LEAST a volta....even though i find it rather ugly.

mmarshall

This hybrid craze, IMO, is only going to last as long as it takes to get good clean low-sulfur diesel fuel here and a wider choice of diesels on the U.S. market (currently only VW's) ....which should be by late 2006. Once the public sees that small diesels offer pretty much the same mileage that hybrids do....but WITHOUT all the complexity of two separate motors, battery packs, and advanced electronics, hybrids are going to lose value very quickly.

SecPole14

I used to think that, but I believe you're wrong.

America has NEVER embraced diesel. Even MB has seen their sales, which were 75% deisel back in the '80s, decline to nothing until the new E-Klasse CDI came out.

And have you SEEN diesel prices lately? Come on, most hybrids run on 87, which is cheaper than diesel, especially the super-diesel that's slated to arrive in '06.

Don't get me wrong, I like diesels. I saw some DOT documents a while ago which showed BMW, Toyota, and Honda, among others, running tests on new diesel motors here in US.

A Toyota Avensis DCAT with a stick-shift here in the US would totally make my day. But the rest of America could care less.

Don't forget, most Americans aren't going to want to put up with diesel gelling and other such issues...Also, the infrastructure isn't there to support a mass-move to diesel.

Hybrids are the way to go. Not diesel, not hydrogen. In the worst case, Toyota and Honda have exceelent diesels they can shoe-horn into their most popular vehicles if it swings the other way.

EDIT: Just compare the buzz surrounding the 400h and the Highlander compared to the Touareg V10...

mmarshall

You make some points, but many of the problems with diesel fuel should be pretty much solved with the excellent new low-sulfur fuel coming by 2006. And today's diesel engines themselves are LIGHT-YEARS ahead of the old, stinky, sluggish, hard-to-start, noisy, unreliable, clattering s - - -boxes of 20-25 years ago that so many people today associate with diesels. People who test-drive many of today's diesels are amazed at the progress that has been made in diesel technology....today they are virtually undistiguishable from a gas engine.
Granted, the infrastructure isn't quite what it could be away from truck stops. But, as demand increases, new diesel facilities will be built.

We'll see. You may be right. But I still think we will see a lot more diesels here by the latter part of the decade.