Industry News
Toyota expects to equal hybrid and petrol powertrain margins by 2010
11th May 2007
Masatami Takimoto, Toyota’s executive vice president in charge of powertrain development, told media yesterday that the company’s reduction efforts on hybrid powertrains would enable its margins on hybrids to equal those on petrol-only vehicles by 2010 or soon thereafter, and 10 years later, Toyota expects all its vehicles to feature its Hybrid Synergy Drive system.
Toyota is likely to sell its one-millionth hybrid vehicle this month, having sold 998,900 by the end of April, 313,000 last year, and a targeted 430,000 units in 2007. By 2020, Mr Takimoto expected hybrids to become the standard drivetrain and account for "100 percent" of Toyota's vehicles.
Prius production will rise by 40% to 280,000 units this year; its next iteration is expected to feature a lithium-ion battery, currently under development with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.
Japanese competitor Nissan recently announced the formation of a joint venture with Nippon Electric Co. (NEC) to develop and produce lithium-ion batteries, and Mitsubishi Motors followed suit this week with GS Yuasa Corp. and its parent Mitsubishi Corp. as partners, but Toyota is convinced that its own battery system is superior.
Mr. Takimoto told reporters that battery technology was still far from capable of supporting the practical application of ‘plug-in’ hybrid systems or pure battery-electric powertrains for cars required to emulate the range of petrol or diesel cars.
While Toyota believes the cost of making diesel powertrains compliant with Euro 5-6 and equivalent U.S. emissions regulations raises their cost disadvantages to the level suffered by current full hybrids, the company expects to announce details of diesel technology developments in conjunction with Isuzu in July.
Mr. Takimoto Toyota expected to be able to mass-produce hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, which run on hydrogen, by 2020; a prototype with a cruising range of 310 miles would be ready soon.
(From a report by Chang-Ran Kim, Reuters’ Asia auto correspondent, for Planet Ark, 11 May)
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