This is the one I want!
Toyota is working on 10 new hybrid vehicles after seeing sales of the environmentally friendly autos rocket in the United States.
Jim Press, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, said the world’s No2 carmaker aims by early in the next decade to sell a million hybrid vehicles a year globally. Of that total, 600,000 would be sold in the United States.
“To us, it’s not a passing phase but a vital technology for the 21st century,” said Press at the annual Center for Automotive Research conference in Traverse City, Michigan.
Trucks, SUV’s, they’re all on the way.
To meet its sales target, Toyota will have to add hybrid engines across its vehicle fleet, including trucks.
The automaker launched a luxury hybrid – the Lexus RX 400h sports utility vehicle – in April and began selling the Toyota Highlander Hybrid in June.
“Both offer the power of a V8 [engine], the mileage of an automatic Mini Cooper, and 80 percent less smog-forming emissions than conventional SUVs,” Press said.
Next year, Toyota plans to introduce two more hybrids – the Lexus GS hybrid sedan and a Camry hybrid built in the automaker’s Kentucky plant.
Toyota is also building a new factory in China to produce and sell hybrids into that burgeoning market.
You guys should think about doing a new automotive blog. As much as I appreciate the diploma challenge, the high stakes Calif. political stuff along with daily horoscopes a Dvorak mobile blog focused on cars, wireless, GPS and that sort of thing might be a cool new direction to go if you have the budget for it.
Great!!! Someone is doing real great stuff for our planet and they are even able to make a profit doing so. This is the direction we should all take… instead of wasting money searching and fighting for oil, the world should spend more and more and more money in R&D so we can crawl ourselves out of the hole we’ve been digging.
Kudus for Toyota!!!!
Next step: Hopefully the popular hydrogen vehicle. If the whole world is as clever as Toyota is being, technology will be our answer to many problems.
Great news. Let’s hope American and European car makers follow suit. Are they dragging their feet on purpose?
Now aint we and they glad we bombed them into the 20th century
I’m still mixed on the hybrid thing. Personally i think you can make your ecological footstep much smaller through other actions like
walking more (i walk to both work, lunch, and the gym everyday)
Living where you can walk to places easily (i live downtown)
Riding a bike (will do this more once i move)
taking mass transit (always do this in portland, best way to get around the city)
Buying a fuel efficent car, like a Metro (yeah, i know they dont make them anymore, but i have always had good luck with them)
Lets see, by doing these things i think i use less fuel and have less of a enviromental impact then if i didn’t do these things and just bought a prius.
Now i know that most people will not do this. They like driving, hate mass transit, and love living in suburbes, which is something i doubt i will ever understand. So i appluad Toyota, but really can’t we all just use are cars less?
I don’t get the whole make a big engine bigger with hybrid technology.
Wasn’t the point to reduce consumption and emissions? Why outfit a six to perform like an eight? How many people really need 8 cylinders of power? How many people actually NEED to drive a truck?
Why not get a real bang for your buck and develop a decent 2 cylinder that feels like a decent 4 cylinder, and put it in a car the size of a Camry, rather than a truck the size of a Sequoia??
Just traded in my 2003 GMC Yukon for a Lexus RX400h yesterday. I bought the Yukon because of the tax deduction (100%) and we own a ranch in Minnesota, but usually only tow under 3000 lbs. So, I calculate at $2.25 per gallon, the 400h will use $2000 less per year of fuel. Fancy, yes, but GM doesn’t offer a full Hybrid, not to mention the myriad of problems I had with my standard engine… Damn American manufacturers are behind the curve, again!!!!
One small point — that will become another post, here — is that the hybrids sold into the US market, so far, also have one of their essential features disabled. A Prius sold in Europe or Asia comes set-up to plug into your house mains at night to top up the batteries. Our Washington Wizards don’t want to scare Detroit, even more.
That feature alone can decrease average gasoline consumption from 40 mpg [as an example] to 60-80 mpg! Since about 2% of US electricity generation uses oil, the cost of operation is cheaper all the way round.
Hydrogen engines are largely a waste of time. To create hydrogen uses substantial amounts of energy(Electric cars have this problem ot a lesser extent). Also, hydrogen is very explosive. Methanol fuel is a better tradeoff in infrastructure cost vs benefit..
I have 2002 Camry Solara Convertable. The canvas top is shrinking. Have any of your readers had this problem, and if so how did they resolve this with Toyota? The car is kept in garage in the afternoon, and at night.