DETROIT — Toyota Motor, known for gasoline-electric hybrids such as its Prius, says it's branching into other alternative power plants to stay ahead of rivals.
It will offer low-pollution diesel engines on the Tundra pickup and Sequoia SUV, while doing more research on ethanol, President Katsuaki Watanabe said.
At the same time, it will introduce Toyota (TM) and Lexus hybrids next year as part of its plan to push U.S. hybrid sales to 1 million annually in the next decade.
By 2010, Toyota plans to build about 400 demonstration plug-in hybrids, which also can charge the batteries from wall sockets, to further cut gasoline use.
The announcements at the North American International Auto Show here underscore Toyota's dilemma: Competitors are rapidly seizing on alternative technologies that can deliver fuel savings similar to hybrids and at lower costs. That's forcing Toyota to broaden its focus beyond hybrids, even where it may harbor doubts about practicality.
"We are covering our bets in all alternative energy areas," said Jim Lentz, president of the U.S. sales operation.
It's easy to see why.
Hybrids are expected to grow to 6.5% of new vehicle sales in the USA in 2014. Passenger-vehicle diesels will take 10% of sales over the same period, predicts J.D. Power and Associates. (MHP)
"They are acknowledging there is a new ballgame opening up … and there is not one right answer," said Jack Nerad of Kelley Blue Book.
Watanabe told reporters Monday that Toyota remains devoted to hybrids. "We have not changed our strategy," he said through a translator. The company is seeking to halve the size and cost of the hybrid power plants.
Toyota now hopes to have hybrid options available on all models by 2020, some 10 years later than it forecast a few years ago. When it comes to plug-in hybrids, the next step is to see if lithium-ion batteries can be built on a large scale, Watanabe says. Those are lighter and more efficient than the nickel metal hydride batteries used today.
Even Toyota's hybrid leadership, unchallenged since it sold the first Priuses in American in 2000, is under fire.
General Motors, (GM) for instance, said here it expects to make a plug-in hybrid version of its Saturn Vue SUV as soon as 2010 that will be among "the world's most-efficient production vehicles."
"Toyota's going to be late to the party," warns Chelsea Sexton of advocacy group Plug In America. "They got too complacent."
Now that alternatives to hybrids are gaining too much momentum to ignore, Toyota "needs to be there," Nerad says.
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