Toyota put its weight behind hybrids on Monday, disclosing plans to roll out 21 new or redesigned gasoline-electric powered vehicles by the end of 2015 and playing down the near-term outlook for other alternative-fuel technologies such as all-electric vehicles.
The Japanese auto maker predicted its sales of hybrid models world-wide will likely top 1 million this year and every year through 2015.
While the rollout and forecast signal Toyota's confidence in its hybrid strategy, the company acknowledges costs must still be cut further to increase profitability and spur sales.
"Profits from conventional [gas] powered cars are still higher, so we need to reduce hybrid costs more in order to promote their diffusion," Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota's vice chairman and R&D head, said at a news conference.
Hybrids are becoming more mainstream in Japan. Toyota's sales of the gasoline-electric vehicles last year reached 310,000, or 26% of its total sales. But they remain a niche in other key markets such as the U.S. Last year, Toyota sold 178,587 hybrid models in the U.S., just a fraction of the 1.64 million vehicles it sold there overall in 2011.
The Japanese auto maker has high hopes for its "plug-in" hybrid, which can be refueled either at the gas pump or by plugging in to a standard electrical outlet.
Earlier this year, the company announced plans to shift production of its Highlander SUV hybrid to a plant in Indiana, but the core engine components-such as motors, batteries and converters-will continue to be exported from Japan.
Beyond the main thrust into hybrids, Japan's No. 1 auto maker also laid out its strategy in other fields of environmental technology, such as all-electric and fuel cell-powered vehicles. Toyota is tiptoeing into EVs with its first sales this year, and it won't begin commercial sales of a fuel cell vehicle for at least three years.
Mr. Uchiyamada indicated that proprietary technology makes FCVs hold more promising than EVs. "Anybody can make EVs, but that is not the case for FCVs," he said. "So we see a lot more potential in FCVs."
Toyota will begin sales of a compact SUV with an electric engine made by Tesla Motors this week in the U.S. market.
The auto maker said it would launch a fuel cell-powered sedan "around 2015" in Japan, North America and Europe, and collaborate with subsidiary Hino Motors to debut a fuel cell bus in 2016. It projected sales of FCVs in the "tens of thousands" by the 2020s.
-Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal
