Toyota Completely Hybrid by 2020?
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK 
on 05.12.07
Toyota’s Masatami Takimoto has said that the company has seen some success in reducing the cost of the electrical components used in it's hybrid powertrains. Toyota ultimately aim to sell one million hybrids a year, and Takimoto claims that by the time this goal is reached he will, “expect margins to be equal to gasoline cars”. Interestingly, Takimoto also said that by 2020, all Toyotas will be hybrid. Is this an actual goal for Toyota, or is this an enthusiastic hybrid supporter speaking on his own personal vision for the company? :: Motor Authority
See also ::Toyota Prius and Camry Hybrid Selling like Hotcakes
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This is false. In fact, Toyota is cancelling the Camry hybrid because of slow sales. And offering incentives on the current Prius. People who buy a hybrid want to flaunt it. Toyota will start a new line of hybrid only cars with unique styling and all 3 models will be called Prius. Prius A, Prius B and Prius C, sort of like Scion. It's all in the current issue of Automobile magazine.
Toyota set a precedence with the ultra mainstream Prius, I cannot deny this, but this remark has only reminded me of one George Bush, who said that America will use 20% less fossil fuels by the year 2020. Wow, what a campaign for the environment that might be six feet under by the time 2020 rolls around, Bush's set date for decreasing dependence. It might be too little too late. Thank you Toyota for the Prius, but no thank you to big business tactics that stray away from eco friendly alternatives, like maybe walking? I think that the Prius is very innovative, yet the emergence of this auto may have been only a marketing ploy towards semi-eco-friendly drivers. How about a solar augmented completely electric vehicle? Oh wait, they are only scraps of metal due to the fright of big Oil.
Why not go all electric?
The RAV4 EV is still going great. Get free of oil altogether.
Why not go all electric?
Low range, high price, out of warranty.
The RAV4 EV is still going great.
300 or less on the road.
There is an inherent problem with transporting a 200 lb person or 600 lb family arounnd in a vehicle that weighs 1000-2000 lb. Hybrid, Electric, hydrogen,whaterver, the company that will succeed in the future will develop a strategy to decrease weight and increase energy efficiency. There is a false sense of pride in an all electric vehicle because the majority of the power used by that vehicle is still generated from non-renewable energy sources such as coal. Decrease energy consumption, increase efficiency, replace energy creation (large scale) with smaller localized plants and we will begin to see a dramatic change in and appriciation for energy.
Regarding the RAV4 EV, this from Toyota's website:
Toyota Motor Corporation discontinued production of the RAV4 Electric Vehicle worldwide in the spring of 2003. Therefore, Toyota will no longer take orders for the RAV4 EV.
As long as the car is eco safe. It is a good car then. :)
I recently traded in my car for an electric moped - not sure if they have them in the States, but they do up here in Canada. I got fast enough to drive it in city traffic, and has a range which covers most commutes. Recharging is as simple as plugging it into an electric outlet.
http://www.e-cycle.ca/
I hope hybrids become mainstream as soon as possible, with the ability to use ethanol or biodiesel and to plug-in to recharge. And then I hope that as they become the norm, our energy infrastructure will have developed enough that the majority of elelctricity is generated with sustainable, renewable resources at which point society should be striving whole-heartedly to create a new norm - either all electric cars or fuel cell cars. Hybrids are a transition technology. When our energy infrastructure is based on renewables, the hybrid transition will need to end. I hope society moves to hybrids fast, and that the transition is mercifully short.
http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/603.html
An article that mentions the prius becoming a sort of brand. Electric cars are more efficient than gas ones, even if they are 100% coal powered. They are expensive right now, and they do have a somewhat short range (120 miles or so), but economies of scale from similar components being used in hybrids will jumpstart progress in these areas. Who knows, maybe Toyota will take some souped up electrical components from the current Prius and make an electric Yaris?
Didn't Toyota recently come out with its biggest truck ever? How many of those do they hope to sell each year?
P.S. In San Francisco, nearly every hybrid I see has a (purchased) pass to use the carpool lane when not carpooling. I'm amazed how many hybrid owners SPEED down the highway with three empty seats everyday. At times the carpool lanes are crowded with more single drivers than actual carpoolers. It makes as much sense as a 2 ton, 300 horsepower Lexus luxury hybrid.