Gojirra99

Apr 18, 2006 — TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp. <7203.T> plans to sell ethanol-powered vehicles in the United States by 2008, following the lead of domestics General Motors Corp. <GM.N> and Ford Motor Co. <F.N>, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing an unnamed company executive.

A Toyota spokeswoman in Tokyo acknowledged that Japan's top auto maker was developing flexible-fuel vehicles, mainly for the ethanol-smitten Brazilian market for starters, but declined to disclose specific product plans.

"We're proceeding with development of ethanol-based cars for Brazil, but for other markets we are gauging what needs there are first," she said.

Toyota, a market leader in gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, has resisted the technology amid worries about the impact of highly corrosive ethanol on rubber seals in the engine, the Financial Times said.

U.S. auto makers have produced about 6 million flexible-fuel vehicles, with many running on E85, or a fuel blend consisting of 85 percent ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, and 15 percent gasoline.

Toyota's new vehicle would be fitted with anti-corrosive parts to meet U.S. regulations, but the auto maker suggested that a less ambitious strategy of mixing only 10-15 percent ethanol into gasoline might produce greater savings, the paper said.

Toyota is still keen to spread the use of hybrid vehicles, which save fuel by twinning a conventional engine with an electric motor, the spokeswoman said.

President Bush has called for more ethanol use to reduce foreign oil imports, but fewer than 1,000 of the nation's 170,000 filling stations currently sell E85.

Bush has set a six-year goal for making ethanol practical and competitive as an alternative fuel, and vowed to fund additional research into ways to make it not just from the commonly used corn but also from wood chips or grasses.


Copyright 2006 Reuters

GFerg

This is kinda funny to me cause as soon as they saw GM and the other domestics really pushing E85 this year in the US, they quickly jump right in. Dont want to miss the boat.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

hahaa, opposite of nissan?

TheRupp

So... the Rockafellers got rich off of oil... is it time to start growing corn...? Hmm...

TRDFantasy

Well actually, the article states they are making ethanol vehicles mainly for Brazil, where there is a big Ethanol market and supporting infrastructure.

The US has a very limited Ethanol infrastructure, and Toyota is probably doing it in the US mainly for marketing more than anything else.

I don't think I need to mention that ethanol has less energy in it per gallon than gasoline, and would result in lower mileage per gallon than gasoline. So in the end, you aren't really saving much with ethanol, especially considering the limited infrastructure in place.

spwolf

30%-40% worse consumption with E85, plus it is already imported to the USA :-).

bagwell

nice.....

Leets

too late... somebody's already running a virtual monopoly on the corn market.

I find it odd, though, that they're pushing for ethanol as opposed to vegetable oil. Diesels can easily and cheaply be modified by manufacturers to run on pure vegetable oil. I can understand why government's pushing ethanol. It's not surprising considering how much the corn industry lines politicians' politics. However, corn could also be used to produce vegetable oil, which is a much more efficient fuel for current internal combustion technology. It would provide more power and significantly better mileage. It seems to me it's just another case of making the rich richer, and not about the best alternative to foreign oil.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

yea this ethanol crap, makes less mileage and less power, my friend filled up on some already and he said his car is more sluggish. So since ethanol isnt petroleum based like MTB was but now we get less mileage and power, so we didnt really go anywhere but line some corn farmers pockets. So much for reducing dependancy on foreign oil, we might be using more than before

newr

I wonder how much land space does it take to produce enough corn to make a gallon of ethanol.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

i dunno watch corn prices skyrocket when you cant grow it fast enough

timoc42

Weird .... I just asked a question abt toyota and ethanol a few days ago.

I think politics (and business) will play a bigger part in the Ethanol initiatives than the demands of a small group of hard-core enthusiasts.
Many 'farming' states such as pennsylvania and indiana are pushing for their own ethanol plants, so as soon as that gets constructed, some supply issues will be solved.

Ethanol mixtures with is not only happening in brazil, but also in many parts of asia with the plan to build new ethanol plants.
Even big investors like UK's Virgin group is putting in millions of dollars for this project.

With gas settling at over $70 a barrel, its time to start investing in ethanol.

spwolf

except that you spend about equal amount of oil to produce that ethanol... Problem with corn based E85 is that it is simply not efficient nor ecological to make. It is simply an political thing to gain votes in farming states, nothing else. And GM and Ford are pusing them to get some press.

EPA recent survey said that only efficient and ecological E85 would be from recycling waste, but right now there is only one test plant doing that (I think it is shell in Canada) and they wont start mass building them for a while now.

Building enough ethanol plants in the USA to satisfy even demand of E85 cars right now would take decades.
It is simply solution to nothing.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

I wonder about that too. A few years ago we did a story on a local company that creates this biodiesel for a number of cars here. They pick up all the scrap oil from local resturants even places like McDonalds and converts it to usable biodiesel. They even showed how non toxic it was by drinking that crap. I wouldn't do that, but our reported did and even said it kind of smelled like french fries Anyway, the diesel cars ran fine. That too me sounds like something the government should subsidise to attract more competition and development and research and just make the product more available and cheaper to the public.

spwolf

biodiesel has the same problem in the sense that it is a lot more expensive to make tha oil. Biodiesel was all the rage in Europe 5-6 years ago, now you dont hear that much about it. EU is still pushing it, but nowhere as much.