Toyota targets 15,000 Prius hybrid exports in 2001
Date: 19-Jun-00
Country: JAPAN
Author: Edwina Gibbs
The Prius was the first hybrid-powered car - combining a traditional
gasoline-powered engine and battery-driven motor - to be sold on the mass market
when it made its debut in 1997.
Hybrid-engined vehicles offer greater fuel efficiency and have lower emissions
levels than conventional cars, running on battery power when starting up and
moving slowly.
Sales in the Prius have, however, been limited to Japan, totalling 37,000 so far.
Toyota launched the second-generation Prius for the Japanese market last week,
targeting monthly sales of 1,500 units.
The new Prius has a top speed of 160 kilometres per hour (99 mph) compared with
140 kph (87 mph) for the previous version. It is capable of running for 29 km per
litre (82 miles per gallon) under Japanese fuel efficiency tests, with ordinary
drivers averaging about 20 km per litre.
The new model will hit the U.S. market next month, priced at around $20,000,
while sales in Europe will begin in September.
Toyota has no plans as yet to take the Prius to other markets.
In a sign that automakers are increasingly backing the new technology, Honda
Motor Co said last month it would begin selling a hybrid-powered version of its
popular Civic compact in Japan next year.
Honda began sales of its first hybrid vehicle, Insight, last year in the United
States and Japan. But as a two-seater coupe, its mass market appeal is limited.
BETTING ON HYBRIDS
And although Honda's latest announcement will mean Toyota will soon no longer
have the hybrid passenger car market to itself, Toyota chief engineer Toshihiro
Oi said the company was welcoming rival moves promoting the technology.
"For those of us working on hybrid cars, the question is how to get them to
become mainstream vehicles. The more hybrids there are out on the road, the
better," he told reporters.
He added that while Honda will come out with the Civic, Toyota has no plans to
stand still, noting that the company was working on a new hybrid system for
bigger vehicles like minivans.
Unlike purely electric-powered vehicles, hybrids do not need to be plugged in to
an outside electricity source, and automakers are betting greater environmental
and energy consciousness, as well as stricter emission rules, will boost demand
for such cars.
They also reckon that fuel-cell-powered cars will not make significant inroads
into the market for at least two decades.
Fuel cells are a cleaner form of energy that generate electricity from hydrogen
and only emit water and heat, but the technology is nascent with no consensus on
the fuel to be used or the type of infrastructure to deliver it.
But hybrid cars are far from becoming money makers, with Toyota and Honda
officials admitting they are, for the time being, absorbing losses on the
technologically expensive cars. Ford Motor Co has said it will put a hybrid
engine in its small sports utility the Escape, from 2003.
DaimlerChrysler has said if a U.S. government sponsored tax credit is approved,
it could have a four-wheel drive version on sale within three years.
