Toyota cutting hybrid costs, claims every car produced will be hybrid by 2020
05-11-07, 12:28 AM
#1
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Toyota cutting hybrid costs, claims every car produced will be hybrid by 2020
Thu May 10, 2007 2:40AM EDT
via cnn
Toyota sees same margins on hybrid,petrol cars soon
TOYOTA CITY, Japan (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp. Research expects to lower costs for hybrid cars enough to be able to make as much money on them as it does on conventional gasoline cars by around 2010, a top executive said on Thursday. Toyota is keen to see the fuel-saving gasoline-electric powertrain enter the mainstream, but critics have noted that the automaker's product mix -- and therefore margins -- deteriorates with the sale of each hybrid.
But Masatami Takimoto, executive vice president in charge of powertrain development at Toyota, said efforts to cut costs on the hybrid system's motor, battery and inverter were bearing fruit, adding he expected the cost structure to improve significantly in a few years.
Toyota has said it aims to boost global annual sales of hybrid cars to 1 million vehicles in 2010 or soon after, from 313,000 units sold last year.
"By then, we expect margins to be equal to gasoline cars," Takimoto told Reuters in an interview at Toyota's headquarters in Toyota City, central Japan.
TOYOTA CITY, Japan (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp. Research expects to lower costs for hybrid cars enough to be able to make as much money on them as it does on conventional gasoline cars by around 2010, a top executive said on Thursday. Toyota is keen to see the fuel-saving gasoline-electric powertrain enter the mainstream, but critics have noted that the automaker's product mix -- and therefore margins -- deteriorates with the sale of each hybrid.
But Masatami Takimoto, executive vice president in charge of powertrain development at Toyota, said efforts to cut costs on the hybrid system's motor, battery and inverter were bearing fruit, adding he expected the cost structure to improve significantly in a few years.
Toyota has said it aims to boost global annual sales of hybrid cars to 1 million vehicles in 2010 or soon after, from 313,000 units sold last year.
"By then, we expect margins to be equal to gasoline cars," Takimoto told Reuters in an interview at Toyota's headquarters in Toyota City, central Japan.
05-11-07, 01:54 PM
#3
Lexus Test Driver
05-12-07, 09:50 AM
#4
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Toyota cutting hybrid costs, claims every car produced will be hybrid by 2020
Friday 11 May 2007
Toyota has always backed its hybrid technology as the key to reducing fuel consumption and carbon emissions, but as advanced as the technology is, diesel powered cars manage to offer similar levels of eco-friendliness but with more performance to boot. It doesn’t help that hybrid vehicles are considerably more expensive than their oil-burning counterparts as well.
That’s why Toyota is hard at work developing cheaper hybrid systems. Reuters reports that Toyota is hoping to make as much money from hybrids as it does from conventional cars by the end of the decade. The news comes from Toyota’s vice president in charge of powertrain development, Masatami Takimoto, who said cost cutting on the electric motor, battery and inverter were all showing positive results and by the time Toyota’s sales goal of one million hybrids annually is reached, it “expect margins to be equal to gasoline cars”. Takimoto also made the bold claim that by 2020, hybrids will be the standard drivetrain and account for “100 percent” of Toyota’s cars.
Last year it sold 313,000 hybrids and this year Toyota is expecting close to 430,000 sales. The most popular hybrid model, the Prius, has been suffering of late in the US because of a wind up of tax credits, which saw prices rise. Experts are predicting that the new model, due late next year or in only 2009, will feature a cheaper lithium-ion battery system.
As for alternatives, Takimoto mentioned that plug-in hybrids, which run on electricity alone and can be charged from a household power socket are still years away from being feasible. while diesel vehicles, as favored by the European carmakers, require expensive particulate filters and other traps that cost almost as much as the first generation hybrid technology.
Friday 11 May 2007
Toyota has always backed its hybrid technology as the key to reducing fuel consumption and carbon emissions, but as advanced as the technology is, diesel powered cars manage to offer similar levels of eco-friendliness but with more performance to boot. It doesn’t help that hybrid vehicles are considerably more expensive than their oil-burning counterparts as well.
That’s why Toyota is hard at work developing cheaper hybrid systems. Reuters reports that Toyota is hoping to make as much money from hybrids as it does from conventional cars by the end of the decade. The news comes from Toyota’s vice president in charge of powertrain development, Masatami Takimoto, who said cost cutting on the electric motor, battery and inverter were all showing positive results and by the time Toyota’s sales goal of one million hybrids annually is reached, it “expect margins to be equal to gasoline cars”. Takimoto also made the bold claim that by 2020, hybrids will be the standard drivetrain and account for “100 percent” of Toyota’s cars.
Last year it sold 313,000 hybrids and this year Toyota is expecting close to 430,000 sales. The most popular hybrid model, the Prius, has been suffering of late in the US because of a wind up of tax credits, which saw prices rise. Experts are predicting that the new model, due late next year or in only 2009, will feature a cheaper lithium-ion battery system.
As for alternatives, Takimoto mentioned that plug-in hybrids, which run on electricity alone and can be charged from a household power socket are still years away from being feasible. while diesel vehicles, as favored by the European carmakers, require expensive particulate filters and other traps that cost almost as much as the first generation hybrid technology.
05-12-07, 10:17 AM
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But then those "next gen" batteries are hella expensive. Well I guess they have until 2020 to produce the batteries in enough volume for the costs to drop as well.
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05-12-07, 10:18 AM
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I can't wait to see how we're going to dispose of all these batteries when they die. And it should be interesting to see where they cut corners in order to produce the more complex hybrid drivetrains for the same price as a gas engine.
In any case, I don't put much value in the comment that [they think] they'll be 100% hybrid by 2020. There's a lot of time between now and then, and directives change. I'd much rather see the hydrogen fuel cell technology "make it", than put so many eggs into the hybrid basket.
In any case, I don't put much value in the comment that [they think] they'll be 100% hybrid by 2020. There's a lot of time between now and then, and directives change. I'd much rather see the hydrogen fuel cell technology "make it", than put so many eggs into the hybrid basket.
05-12-07, 10:35 AM
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I've heard Toyota is working on fuel cell cars too, they will be "hybrids" as well, basically using the same technology as the gasoline-electric hybrids, but using hydrogen fuel cells instead of gasoline engine . . .
05-12-07, 11:52 AM
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Experts are predicting that the new model, due late next year or in only 2009, will feature a cheaper lithium-ion battery system.
but why not?
05-12-07, 03:13 PM
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by 2020 almost all batteries will be organic based rather than metal based. they're going to be smaller, lighter, and enviornmentally friendly. I predict, most cars will be flex fuel/bio diesel hybrid powered
05-13-07, 10:14 AM
#13
Lexus Fanatic
We'll see what technology is like down the road, but at current levels, I'm still not sold on gas-electric or diesel-electric hybrids. They are complex, expensive to produce, and the question of how to recycle battery packs is still an ongoing problem. In addition, the idea of the battery pack behind the rear seats, right over the fuel tank, REALLY makes me nervous when I think of what can happen in a substantial rear-impact, with sparks from the battery case combined with a tank rupture.
Fuel-cells, though non-polluting, are even more expensive to produce, and while they don't produce fossil-fuel type pollutants, they do put a lot of water vapor out the tailpipe into the air, and the potential climatic conditions of millions of vehicles putting all that extra moisture into the air don't seem to have been taken into account either.
A simple, straight, small diesel engine up front, like on the overseas-market VW Lupo, which gets some 80 MPG, or even a VW Golf/Jetta type diesel, which gets 50-60 MPG, IMO is the best solution, for now, to the fuel-conservation problem until tomorrow's technologies can be fully worked out. Diesel-electric hybrids, of course, offer even better mileage but have the same complexities and expenses of production that gas-electric hybrids do.
I also, for various reasons, like the idea of ethanol-powered cars, but ethanol takes a lot of energy to make, is not readily available or distributed outside of the Midwest, and delivers low fuel mileage.
Fuel-cells, though non-polluting, are even more expensive to produce, and while they don't produce fossil-fuel type pollutants, they do put a lot of water vapor out the tailpipe into the air, and the potential climatic conditions of millions of vehicles putting all that extra moisture into the air don't seem to have been taken into account either.
A simple, straight, small diesel engine up front, like on the overseas-market VW Lupo, which gets some 80 MPG, or even a VW Golf/Jetta type diesel, which gets 50-60 MPG, IMO is the best solution, for now, to the fuel-conservation problem until tomorrow's technologies can be fully worked out. Diesel-electric hybrids, of course, offer even better mileage but have the same complexities and expenses of production that gas-electric hybrids do.
I also, for various reasons, like the idea of ethanol-powered cars, but ethanol takes a lot of energy to make, is not readily available or distributed outside of the Midwest, and delivers low fuel mileage.
Last edited by mmarshall; 05-13-07 at 10:21 AM.
05-13-07, 10:27 AM
#15
Lexus Champion
Gee, the head of powertrain development at Toyota thinks it would be a nifty idea of having every Toyota built in 13 years to be completely hybrid. No surprise there as that is his bailliwick. But that is not the financial types at Toyota talking. I seriously doubt hybrids will be the long term silver bullet many believe they will be. There is still a lot of life left in the good old internal combustion engine. Unfortunately many of the gains made in the last decade or so in this area were wasted in building bigger, heavier, more powerful cars.