By James Brooke The New York Times

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2005


TOKYO With Hurricane Katrina pushing American gas pump prices above $3 a gallon, Toyota Motor may find itself yet again in the right place at the right time, with a new, half-mile-long assembly line capable of producing gasoline-electric hybrid Prius cars at the rate of one a minute.

The kilometer-long line, inside a factory in Toyota City, is part of a strategy by the largest Japanese company to expand hybrids from a niche in the marketplace (just 5 percent of its U.S. sales now) to mainstream (25 percent of its sales by 2010).

With oil prices in the range of $70 a barrel, Toyota's investment in energy-saving technology may seem an easy bet. But the gamble by the pioneer in producing hybrids still faces a variety of major challenges.

The increasingly competitive marketplace may prove to be the biggest for Toyota, whose goal for early in the next decade is to sell a million hybrids worldwide, 600,000 of them to Americans.

By 2008, Americans can expect to see 10 hybrid models from Toyota and a dozen more from such brands as Mercury, Dodge, Chevrolet, Nissan and Porsche, as those automakers realize that fuel efficiency may be the next big thing since safety features.

Nissan is expected to produce a hybrid version of its Altima in 2006. General Motors and DaimlerChrysler have signed a deal to develop hybrid technology jointly.

At the same time, the energy bill signed by President George W. Bush on Aug. 8 effectively gave a break to U.S. manufacturers by extending what could be a tax credit of as much as $3,400 per car to purchasers of the first 60,000 hybrids sold by a company, with the credit phasing out after that. With Toyota selling more than 60,000 hybrids this year already, the tax law seems intended to help GM and Ford. Last year, Ford, the lone U.S. carmaker selling a hybrid comparable to a Prius, sold 2,566 for a 3 percent share. The new tax law "seems to benefit those who haven't done anything in the area of hybrids until now," Christopher Richter, auto analyst for CLSA Asia Pacific Markets, said in Tokyo. "And it seems to penalize those who have been pioneers."

At the same time, some U.S. drivers are wary about paying as much as $5,000 more for a hybrid that may not be a great fuel saver. As a result, Toyota is fine-tuning its use of the word hybrid.

"We are not marketing them only as highly fuel-efficient vehicles; that is a natural association people have with the word hybrid," Paul Nolasco, a Toyota spokesman, said, referring largely to the Highlander and the Lexus. "We are marketing hybrid synergy drive - great environmental performance and, at the same time, great driving performance."

In early August, California regulators started to distinguish between high fuel efficiency hybrids and 'muscle' hybrids, the high-powered versions that save little gasoline. Of the seven hybrid models now on sale in the United States, owners of the Honda Civic, Honda Insight and Toyota Prius can now get sticker decals allowing them to drive alone, rather than with two passengers or more in highway commuter lanes. That reward is not extended to four hybrids not rated as exceptional energy savers: Honda Accord, Ford Escape, Toyota Highlander and Lexus RX 400h, also part of the Toyota family.

But with Americans paying $40 or more for a tank of gasoline, hybrid is a label that carmakers believe will draw buyers into their showrooms. This year, U.S. demand was so strong that a used 2004 Prius sometimes sold for as much as the window sticker on a new one.

"The challenge is how to expand hybrid technology to more models and more lines," Masatami Takimoto, Toyota's new executive vice president in charge of advanced power train and engine technology, said at the company's new steel and glass global headquarters building here. "My personal desire is to put the hybrid to all the models. But it cannot be done overnight, only step by step."

Responding to criticism that the actual mileage of the new Prius, Toyota's third most popular car in the United States after the Camry and Corolla, often falls short of its federal economy rating, he said, "The majority of customers say that their second generation Prius gets much better mileage than their old car."

He added that Toyota was meeting with officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to review their gas mileage measurement system. Hybrids get their best mileage in the stop-and-go traffic of cities and suburbs, when they largely run on their electric motors.

Initially, all of Toyota's hybrids were made in Japan. But this fall, Prius production is to start in China. Those cars are for the Chinese market.

Next year, Toyota is to start making a hybrid Camry at the company's Kentucky plant. And a Toyota pickup truck plant is to open next year in San Antonio, with some of the trucks produced there expected to be hybrids.

"To us, it's not a passing phase but a vital technology for the 21st century," Jim Press, president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., told a recent auto industry conference in Michigan.

source : iht.com

 

i want a 2007 Camry Hybrid V6


if they build a FJ Cruiser Hybrid ...i want that too.

 

more social engineering in California. We wouldn't want to reward people who actually need an SUV like the RX400h hybrid.

 

I have mixed emotions on the hybrid solo car pool lane use deal. But I think the way they wrote the provision it wasn't just hybrid, it was hybrids that got over a certain mileage figure like 40 or 45 mpg. That lets out the spute hybrids and probably even the Camry size hybrids. Have to see what happens if gas prices moderate.

 

FJ Cruiser... now that's a great looking car I don't know why people think it's weird. I personally love it. It'll be even better with Hybrid.

 

Yup, I think it looks great too.

 

Just to let you know the prius hybrid was one of some vehicles with FRADULENT EPA mileages!!!

From its calim of giving 50mpg, it was reported that it really gives 35mpg...i dont know if it was city or highway. It was a show on tv i saw this morning.

The toyota camry was on it too for failure to convey the real EPA mileages. The EPA said that consumers have to rememebr its an ESTIMATE...but even reading the fine print the gas mileages they had a range on were not anywhere close to the actual tested gas mileages. When asked by the director of EPA from pointing this out - she was quiet and didnt respond.

beware! it wasnt just these toyota vehicles...there was another one that i rememebr...the honda element.


fyi

 

check out priuschat.com

some have gotten better than EPA

 

 

that is, absolutely ridiculously crazy.

 

I hear ya, that's crazy.

I think when I graduate from college (3 years) and am ready for a new car, nothing would be better for me than a camry hybrid. Professional enough, looks just fine, and gets good mileage if gas hangs around $3. I'm full heartedly into the new hybrids, as I understand their purpose as a gateway to zero emission vehicles that can, IMO, one day become a reality. I'd like a company that has this vision to take my money.

James