Full HEV Lineup Prompted by High Fuel Prices
It must be incomprehensibly tough to fight against auto-giant Toyota. No sooner had Bill Ford, the amiable spokesman and ever optimistic CEO of the automaker that bears his great-grandfather's name, announced that 50 percent of its models will come equipped with its proprietary
gasoline-electric full-hybrid system, which will be the equivalent of about 8 percent of the automaker's lineup, than Toyota, now the world's second largest automaker (rubbing more salt into an open wound) responds with an announcement that it plans on offering its arguably most advanced Hybrid Synergy Drive system in every model it produces!
"In the future, the cars you see from Toyota will be 100 percent hybrid," executive vice president Kazuo Okamoto told a media scrum attending the Frankfurt auto show in Germany on Monday.
While Okamoto wouldn't offer an ETA for his grand future plans, no-one would be foolish enough to doubt that, if Japan's number one brand decides that such a move is in its best long-term interests, it will happen.
Okamoto cited high gasoline prices as the impetus behind such a decision,
and with placards popping up in various locations across the nation at $1.50 per litre, an end to rising fuel costs hardly looks near.
So what are its short-term goals? Toyota is targeting up to 400,000 hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs) worldwide in 2006, or so said the automaker's president, Katsuaki Watanabe at an investor conference in New York on Monday, which will include its dedicated Prius hybrid compact-to-midsize liftback, as well as the Highlander Hybrid midsize SUV, and upcoming Camry hybrid. Toyota's Lexus brand will continue forward with its RX 400h model, which shares components with the Highlander Hybrid, as well as a new midsize GS 450h. Also, the company's Coaster buses will be outfitted with a version of the automaker's HEV system. This would equal a 60 percent rise over its 2005 hybrid sales.
It must be incomprehensibly tough to fight against auto-giant Toyota. No sooner had Bill Ford, the amiable spokesman and ever optimistic CEO of the automaker that bears his great-grandfather's name, announced that 50 percent of its models will come equipped with its proprietary
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| Toyota announced that it plans on offering its arguably most advanced Hybrid Synergy Drive system in every model it produces! (Photo: Toyota Canada) |
"In the future, the cars you see from Toyota will be 100 percent hybrid," executive vice president Kazuo Okamoto told a media scrum attending the Frankfurt auto show in Germany on Monday.
While Okamoto wouldn't offer an ETA for his grand future plans, no-one would be foolish enough to doubt that, if Japan's number one brand decides that such a move is in its best long-term interests, it will happen.
Okamoto cited high gasoline prices as the impetus behind such a decision,
 |
| Toyota is targeting up to 400,000 hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs) worldwide in 2006. (Photo: Toyota Canada) |
So what are its short-term goals? Toyota is targeting up to 400,000 hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs) worldwide in 2006, or so said the automaker's president, Katsuaki Watanabe at an investor conference in New York on Monday, which will include its dedicated Prius hybrid compact-to-midsize liftback, as well as the Highlander Hybrid midsize SUV, and upcoming Camry hybrid. Toyota's Lexus brand will continue forward with its RX 400h model, which shares components with the Highlander Hybrid, as well as a new midsize GS 450h. Also, the company's Coaster buses will be outfitted with a version of the automaker's HEV system. This would equal a 60 percent rise over its 2005 hybrid sales.