Toyota Plans To Become Enviro-Friendly With Two New Hybrids
After Honda Motor Company and Nissan Motor Company announced to become enviro- friendly with their green car programs, Toyota Motor Corp. has taken a step ahead in the green car wars.
Toyota is planning to launch two new hybrid vehicles that will debut at the 2009 Detroit auto show and will start of the production of lithium ion battery next year.
The two vehicles- one badged a Toyota and the other a Lexus, both will sit above the third-generation Prius car. In addition, the company will also show a redesigned Prius, due in 2009.
The executive vice president of Toyota, Masatami Takimoto said that the new hybrid models will be larger than the Prius. He added, “It’s a totally new car.”
All the planned vehicles are expected to use nickel-metal hybride batteries. The long awaited lithium ion batteries are expected to debut in Toyota’s first plug-in hybrid in 2010. Panasonic EV Energy Co. which makes batteries for Toyota’s hybrid vehicles will start maufacturing the lithium ion batteries in 2009.
Lithium ion batteries are seen as a key to jump-starting the market for low-emissions gasoline-electric hybrid and pure electric vehicles. They are lighter and more powerful than the nickel-metal hydride batteries now used in hybrids.
The company is already in a process of setting up a 50-person strong team of battery researchers this month to develop a post-lithium ion battery with better performance, said Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe.
Honda Motor Co. will launch four hybrid vehicles with lithium ion batteries by 2015 and Nissan Motor Co. plans to hit the market with production of lithium ion batteries next year.
Apart from these, Toyota is taking stake in other green initiatives including new 1.3-liter and 2.5-liter gasoline engines featuring stop-start technology, due this year; a new highly efficient compact six-speed manual transmission, arriving in the fall and cutting carbon dioxide emissions from factories to 35 percent of 2001 levels by 2010.
