Toyota To Go 100% Hybrid
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 09.19.05
Toyota has announced that all of its vehicles would eventually be powered by hybrid gasoline-electric motors. "In the future, the cars you see from Toyota will be 100 percent hybrid," said Kazuo Okamoto of Toyota. There's no deadline for that, but at the rate at which Toyota is introducing new models (especially the predictably popular Camry Hybrid) and ramping up production, it should not take too long.
The company has sold 425,000 hybrids since 1997 (when the first version of the Prius was introduced in Japan - most people think that the current Prius model is second generation, but it's actually a third generation vehicle) and plans to sell around 400,000 hybrid vehicles in 2006 alone. That's almost as much as their previous 8 years combined! Also, as we've recently reported, Toyota wants to reduce the price of its hybrids, which should make them even more popular. Just imagine how many they would sell if there was no supply problem and no waiting lists! I bet the US auto executives who said that hybrids were a waste of time and would always stay a "niche product" are now thinking otherwise.
Does this mean they aren't doing any work on diesel-electric hybrids?
James, I don't think it means that. Toyota is already selling lots of diesel engines worldwide and I wouldn't be surprised if they were considering producing diesel hybrids.
GM and DCX have finally decided to build Hybrids, Ford has been producing a Hybrid for some time now.
Tim,
That is true, but they have a lot of catching up to do. Toyota (and Honda, probably) were doing R&D and investments in their supply chain in the mid 90s. Now, it's 10 years later.
Sometimes I think Nissan had the right idea to license Toyota's tech (Altima hybrids are coming...), at least until they develop something competitive.
But then again, Hyundai is said to be working on their own system, and they say that they will catch up with Toyota in 3 years. I'll believe it when I see it.
sometimes when looking at all of these spits in the bicket, it's hard not to think about James Howard Kunstler and what he's saying these days... i mean sure it's great... yeah... i hope to see some road-free visionaries in TH soon. time to evolve, no?
littleCatalyst,
Hey, make us king of Earth and we'll have bikable and walkable cities with decentralized solar/wave/wind production and local food supplies, but in the meantime, people are buying cars, so they might as well buy the most efficient ones possible. We don't pretend that "fuel efficiency" will solve peak oil, but it sure will be easier to adapt if we're using less of it and if we slow down the downward curve.
littleCatalyst,
As efficient and safe as rail is, at least for industry's sake, it's not nearly effective as truck transport. The logistics are exceedingly more flexible, the costs can be controlled by running your own trucks, and the rest of the country is paying for your infrastructure (the roads).
I'm not saying I like this, but Pandora's Box is open. A perfect counter-example is China right now. Despite their economic boom, they depend more heavily on rail transport, and so getting around and moving cargo from point-to-point happens at a much slower pace. Industry sees this as a serious fault, and China is building roads like crazy.
Like it or not, more motor vehicles are coming, so they need to be cleaner.
I wish that at least ONE car company would make an ultra low drag coefficient car with an efficient engine.
Something inspired by the Shell Eco Marathon competitors maybe?
I want a car made according to aerodynamic principles. Not something that someone thinks will look good or trendy.
Honda makes your car. Its called the Insight. Its 60mpg ultra low drag ultra effiecient and has 3cyl engine.
i know i know.... we have cars, ugly reality, and neither of us is king of the world ((if i was, everything would have already been depaved re-treed and re-streamed... and we'd already be transporting stuff via magnet-propelled vehicles that travel from rooftop greenhouse to rooftop greenhouse... but then i wake up)). =======================ALSO i just re-read in the awesome business book What We Learned In the Rainforest all about how major changes bring blowbacks while slow steady change allows all the organizims to adapt... and so if we follow natures rules, then the ramp-up is right, even if we are possibly 25 years too late... and ALSO in the same book they talk about how people adapt and the little incremental changes help people lose the polarity Us vs. Them mentality... And so an "on the fence" consumer who then drives a hybrid will then be open to purchasing organic food, or organic cotton, better insulation.... and the next thing u know they are immersed in all of it, but gradulally and with many micro transitions.... so in that sense hybrids are great. a great tool to eventually take us to where we want to be.===================================================
As long as the climate stays stable, as long as the gulf stream doesn't fail, as long as the north pole glacier doesn't keep on building (it's now at 12km/yr). as long as we live in the best-case scenario of climate modellers (we don't)... ============================================== in fact if you want to look at some equal-but-dissimilar takes on adaptation, go to the world's expert on climate change and human evolution, this guy william calvin says we need at least 50 years to adapt. So then we have to do some math, no? and then ask if there is enough time to adapt. And if so, will that be a hybrid (ha ha ha)? Will we have to adapt to a climate regime that is no longer hospitable for stuff like growing food, shipping stuff from tierra del fuego to ungava bay, heck, even catching a good outdoor ballgame? =================================================and MGR if u know me, at least from my blog ... you know i'm not a doomsdayer. In fact i do believe (and will till FEMA drags me away kick/screaming) that it is possible to adapt big time-- all the tools are there for modular organic agrobots, free energies, everthing we neede till we get the rooftop greenhouses and re-treed ex-streets... I know we can do it! But it takes bold iconoclasts and visionaries willing to take it to the hilt. We need those ideas out there fomenting and inspiring others and pushing the envelope.... =======================And that is why I Kunstelered before... because i firmly believe that TH is one of those iconoclastic visionaries... and so if y'all are going to report on stuff that is piecemeal (imnsho) and already accepted by the MSM, it's well.. gunna get my vitriol... and like i said before.. come on TH; blow my mind!!
little shop:
Funny.
The Insight still has twice the drag as the Ford Probe V prototype from 1985.
Honda Insight: 0.25
Ford Probe V: 0.137
...and i really don't mean to haarp, but MGR, you said something i just re-read: "(fuel efficiency won't solve peak oil) but it sure will be easier to adapt if we're using less of it and if we slow down the downward curve"
And that may be true... but i see it like this; a junky who shoots up heroin, if s/he cut down from 5 times a day to 3... when s/he has none, s/he will go through the same detox pain as the junky who never cut down. My coffee comes from somewhere faraway, as do most of my fruits & veggies all winter long, and even the keyboard i'm typing on was once donisaurs, you knwo the drill.. the scale is so immense... it's going to take some radical change and radical solutions to get us sustainable... So sure, applaud the incremental baby steps, but i can't really believe that going from 30mpg to 50mpg will do that much. sorry.
ok last post(in this thread) i promise.....
in the book Suppressed Inventions Jonathan Eisen documens more PATENTED free energy machines and water burning cars than you can shake a stick at (seriously by the last few chapters he just list the inventions and patent number, then on to the next-- there's just too many of 'em).
.......And inventor Joesph Newman drove a car on a watch battery (!) it was written up in popular mechanics (ok he's not the most alltogether dude no the planet -- i helped get him on Discovery channel once and he punched out a physicist on camera!).
.........I met this guy Troy Reed in Tulsa OK once-- even got a ride in his car (silent, recharging, green & serene) this guy has heaters, cars, electric-assits bikes, generators, even a helicopter using a similar technology as newmans (but a little more grounded-- the guy not the tech) you can get a video of his technologies, or just read up on it...
........ok one last one.. this one is a little new-agey but still, there's even a video clip, how can u gowring with an electrolizing powder-- sprinkle some into your water and get all the hydrogen u need!
there are many solutions out there... many can be commercialized. in WWII GM was told "ok boys, no more oldsmobiles.. we need tanks" it is possible to mobilize large-scale, make 'em change! and like i've said here (to death) we need this stuff yesterday! So sorrt MGR, and sorry TH, i lve you guys, but won't back down....
ok last post(in this thread) i promise.....
in the book Suppressed Inventions Jonathan Eisen documens more PATENTED free energy machines and water burning cars than you can shake a stick at (seriously by the last few chapters he just list the inventions and patent number, then on to the next-- there's just too many of 'em).
.......And inventor Joesph Newman drove a car on a watch battery (!) it was written up in popular mechanics (ok he's not the most alltogether dude no the planet -- i helped get him on Discovery channel once and he punched out a physicist on camera!).
.........I met this guy Troy Reed in Tulsa OK once-- even got a ride in his car (silent, recharging, green & serene) this guy has heaters, cars, electric-assits bikes, generators, even a helicopter using a similar technology as newmans (but a little more grounded-- the guy not the tech) you can get a video of his technologies, or just read up on it...
........ok one last one.. this one is a little new-agey but still, there's even a video clip, how can u gowring with an electrolizing powder-- sprinkle some into your water and get all the hydrogen u need!
there are many solutions out there... many can be commercialized. in WWII GM was told "ok boys, no more oldsmobiles.. we need tanks" it is possible to mobilize large-scale, make 'em change! and like i've said here (to death) we need this stuff yesterday! So sorrt MGR, and sorry TH, i lve you guys, but won't back down....
Will this mean the entire Scion line?
www.scion66.com
OK
Scion66
Ah, now I get... not BBCode... pure html... who knew... sorry...
Will Toyota ever make a 100% electric car?.