AUTOSHOW - Rivals Turn up Heat to Challenge Toyota Hybrid Push

DETROIT - Toyota Motor Corp. pushed the hybrid envelope further this week by unveiling two high-profile cars equipped with the powertrain at the annual Detroit auto show, but competitors responded by cranking up the volume to promote rival clean-engine technologies.

Japan's top auto maker has gained a reputation as a "green" company with its popular Prius and other gasoline-electric hybrids, and is keen to see the technology take off globally.

fter selling about 250,000 hybrid vehicles globally last year, Toyota is targeting sales of 400,000 units in 2006 with the addition of versions of the Lexus LS and Toyota Camry hybrids - the two brands' flagship sedans.

"It is clear today that hybrid technology has moved solidly into the mainstream especially among consumers who are environmentally aware, and want to make a difference for future generations," Don Esmond, senior vice president at Toyota Motor Sales USA., said at the Camry hybrid's launch at the North American International Auto Show here this week.

But rivals sought to tone down the hype, citing high costs to manufacturers and consumers and claiming "inflated truths" about vastly improved mileage. Hybrids twin a conventional combustion engine and an electric motor to save fuel.

"I hate selling cars at a loss," Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn told reporters, saying hybrids were not a profitable proposition.

Nissan will bring out its first hybrid with the Altima sedan later this year, but says it was only because average fleet fuel economy regulations in California require it.

Ghosn repeated that Japan's second-biggest auto maker will bring diesel passenger vehicles to the United States.

Even Honda Motor Co., which introduced the first hybrid car to the United States with the two-seater Insight in 1999, is not ready to endorse hybrids as the future mainstream for green cars just yet.

"We'll figure out over the next year whether hybrids are a cost-effective proposal for big-volume production," Chief Executive Takeo Fukui told Reuters recently. "By no means have we reached that conclusion yet."

Honda has said that zero-emission fuel-cell vehicles should be the ultimate goal for the industry since supply of its power source, hydrogen, is inexhaustible.

Fukui said in Detroit this week that Honda would aim to begin leasing a roomier, cheaper and more practical fuel-cell vehicle within the next three to four years.

Japan's third-ranked auto maker by volume also said it would offer diesel cars in the United States, following European brands such as Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen AG into the nascent segment.

DIESEL POWER

The most vocal challenge against gasoline-electric hybrids came from Germany's DaimlerChrysler AG, which zealously supported diesel engines. Diesels get 20 to 40 percent better fuel economy than gasoline vehicles and now power more than half of all cars sold in Europe.

Unveiling the Mercedes E320 BLUETEC diesel car to be launched this fall and which features what DaimlerChrysler touted as the "cleanest diesel in the world," CEO Dieter Zetsche said diesels offered an excellent solution to weaning the United States off of foreign oil.

"If we had a light duty vehicle population that was one-third diesels, that could save up to 1.4 million barrels of oil per day in the US - the amount the US currently imports from Saudi Arabia," Zetsche said, citing a study by the Environmental Protection Agency.

DaimlerChrysler said sales of its current E-Class diesel had been booming since August as more Americans take to the torque, performance and fuel economy that diesels can offer.

Indeed, hybrids have increasingly faced sobering publicity about the "myth" of real-life fuel economy. Many drivers have reported to be disillusioned about underperforming the advertised mileage on their hybrids, which are most effective in stop-and-go city driving but help little on highways.

But hybrids are certainly on all major auto makers' radar.

General Motors Corp. unveiled two hybrid models, the Saturn Vue Green Line car and the Chevrolet Tahoe SUV, at the Detroit show, while crosstown rival Ford Motor Co. has pledged a 10-fold increase in hybrid output by 2010.

Research firm J.D. Power and Associates last week projected hybrid vehicles to make up 4.2 percent of the US light vehicle market by 2012, up from around 1.3 percent last year. Its latest forecast for diesel penetration was a growth to 7.5 percent in 2012 from 3 percent in 2004.

(Additional reporting by Michael Shields)

Story by Chang-Ran Kim, Asia auto correspondent

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

Toyota to boost domestic Prius production 50% by 2007

Nagoya (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - Toyota Motor Corp. (TSE:7203) plans to increase domestic production of its Prius hybrid car by 50 per cent to about 300,000 vehicles in 2007. The automaker currently manufactures the popular model almost completely in Japan and exports the vehicles to 40 countries and regions.

Although it already has plans to boost annual output by 15 per cent to about 200,000 vehicles this year, production has not been able to keep up with the growth in demand.

Toyota aims to just about quadruple worldwide hybrid sales from the 2005 figure to 1 million vehicles in the early 2010s.

Source:
Business in Asia Today - Sept 22, 2006
published by Asia Pulse

Lexus challenges Toyota's hybrid hegemony

By Jorn Madslien

BBC News Online business reporter at the Paris Motor Show

The Toyota Prius petrol and electric hybrid car which has become such a hit in recent months with the green-thinking Hollywood set is about to be given a run for its money.

The latest challenger is built in-house, though, by Toyota Motor's luxury car subsidiary Lexus.

On show at the Paris Motor Show, the Lexus RX400h Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) offers right thinking Californians the chance to be green, or at least relatively so, while at the same time driving a powerful car.

(Right Picture: An attractive mix, powerful yet kind to the environment)

The Lexus Sports Utility Vehicle has a 3.3 litre V6 petrol engine that delivers 286 bhp, as well as two electric motors - one in front, one in the back.

Toyota and Lexus vice president James Rosenstein insists the Lexus will travel 100 kilometres on 8 litres of petrol.

That might be good for a car this size, but it is hardly a green alternative to small cars.

Selling point

Nevertheless, the RX400h is expected to boost the Lexus brand, both in the US where it is already popular and in Europe where years of hard nosed marketing efforts have failed to boost market share.

"Hybrid will make a difference for Lexus," Mr Rosenstein insists. In the USA, the non-hybrid equivalent of the RX400h is called RX300. It is the most popular Lexus going.

And yet, US dealers predict that the new hybrid will make up half its SUV sales in America as soon as it becomes available for customers.

(Right Picture: Toyota executives show off the latest model with a new, cleaner diesel engine)

In Europe, Mr Rosenberg hopes the hybrid SUV will help make up for recent years' disappointing performance.

Lexus has been weak in Europe because the design has not been adapted to European tastes and because we have not had diesel," he said.

New designs with "a bit more emotion", along with hybrid and diesel engines - both due to hit the market next year, could well appeal to Europeans lumbered with much more expensive petrol than the Americans, Mr Rosenberg suggested.

"The hybrid Lexus is also an answer to those who complain that SUVs are gas guzzlers," he said.

Competition

Other car makers are increasingly getting ready to follow Toyota Motor's suit and launch competing hybrid vehicles of their own.

Ahead of the pack is Honda which has been developing hybrid technologies of their own, alongside Toyota's. Peugeot is also in on the act with its stop-and-go technology.

But other car makers have arrived late for the party and have decided to pay to get onto the fast track.

(Picture Right: Toyota's Prius hybrid vehicle was just the beginning)

"We've licensed the technology to Ford (which has used it to launch its Escape SUV), we have licensed our technology to Nissan, and there has been contact with other manufacturers" Mr Rosenstein said.

"This is just the beginning," Mr Rosenstein said, promising several new hybrid models from both Toyota and Lexus in the near future.

Hybrids help boost Toyota profits

Continued demand for cars such as the Prius hybrid have helped Toyota to healthy quarterly profits.

Toyota said operating profit rose 14% in the October to December period, as a weaker yen boosted overseas earnings.

(Picture right: Toyota hopes to see worldwide Prius sales of one million a year by 2010)

The firm, Japan's biggest carmaker, is seeing strong demand for its hybrids, which use petrol and electric power.

Toyota, which this year may surpass General Motors as the world's biggest carmaker, recorded an operating profit of 482.21bn yen ($4.05bn; £2.3bn).

US roll-outs

Toyota hopes to see worldwide Prius sales of one million a year by 2010. Demand for hybrids looks set to increase in coming years as they address global environmental and energy supply problems.

Meanwhile, Toyota's cost-cutting has enabled it to embark on capital spending on new and bigger manufacturing plants across the globe.

New models such as the Camry and Lexus LS sedans are to be rolled out in the US market soon, as Toyota looks to build a record number of vehicles in 2006.

Net profit was up 34.1% to 397.57bn yen thanks to a rise in the value of Toyota's stake in the former UFJ Holdings, after the bank's merger to form the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/