Toyota to make all cars hybrids
By John Lippert
Bloomberg News Service
DETROIT — 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, at a Detroit conference.
Toyota was the first to sell a hybrid, the Prius, in 1997. Analysts said its plan might force rivals to rethink their strategies.
As governments tighten pollution rules, automakers want to cut emissions, and some rivals such as General Motors Corp. are focusing on fuel cells rather than hybrids.
Toyota is the only automaker capable of building enough hybrids to overcome their 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 studies the effect of new technology and environmental rules on automakers from his base in Chicago. "If they can pull it off, their fuel economy would be beautiful, and they'd never have to worry about emissions."
Toyota's plan "is probably going to force some competitors to rethink elements of their long-term strategies," said Thad Malesh, director of alternative-power technologies at marketing researcher J.D. Power & Associates. "This is going to make Toyota's technology the de facto industry standard."
Toyota sold 5.9 million cars and trucks last year, including 36,928 hybrids. The Prius, sold in the U.S., Japan and Europe, combines an internal-combustion engine and 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 — the two-seat Insight and a version of the Civic.
Toyota plans to use much of the technology it has developing for hybrids on fuel-cell vehicles, which it 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 did not say how much the automaker expects to spend on the effort.
Toyota expects to sell 300,000 hybrids annually through its dealerships by 2007, Takimoto said. That's two years later than the company had indicated in previous statements, and the sales figure could be doubled or tripled by selling 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 had talks with Toyota about buying hybrid engines, but no decision had been made.
General Motors Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said in an interview earlier this year that he decided to favor fuel cells in 1999, after his company pulled the plug on its $1 billion investment in the EV-1 electric car. He had concluded that hybrids made more economic sense in Tokyo, with its stop-and-go driving and $4-a-gallon gasoline, than in the United States.
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 fuel-economy rating for 2002 compact cars, at 52 miles per gallon in city driving and 45 mpg on the highway, the Environmental Protection Agency said two weeks ago. The Insight had the highest mileage, with 57 mpg in city driving and 56 mpg on the highway.
