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just call him Kawasaki Wannabe!
ok...yes I am bored but still found this semi interesting...
Toyota Aims to Double Number of Hybrid Cars
By JATHON SAPSFORD
June 13, 2006 10:05 a.m.
TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp., seeking to burnish its image as a provider of environmentally-friendly auto technologies, said Tuesday it plans to double the number of hybrid gasoline-electric powered models by as early as 2010.
Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe told a well-attended news conference in Tokyo that Toyota will expand its research of hybrids that plug into an electric power supply as part of this effort. It would also continue to pursue a number of different green technologies for power trains, the term used to describe the combination of components that propel a car, from the engine and transmission to the drive shaft and wheels.
The company is developing power trains that use standard fossil fuels more efficiently, as well others powered by alternatives such as electricity, ethanol, fuel cells or various combinations of these technologies. Toyota said it is preparing to introduce in early 2007 a car that runs entirely on ethanol for the market in Brazil, where ethanol derived from plants is widely used as an energy source. Toyota is also considering introducing cars powered at least partially by ethanol to the U.S., though officials declined to specify when that might happen.
But Toyota has poured the lion's share of its resources for environmentally sound technologies into developing and marketing so-called hybrids that run on both gasoline and electricity. It has sold more than 500,000 such cars in less than a decade.
Toyota said that it wants to double the number of models that are offered in the hybrid version by sometime early in the decade beginning from 2010. The company declined to provide a more specific time frame. Toyota currently offers seven models with hybrid engines, including the Prius and Camry sedans.
Because they reduce harmful emissions, hybrids are considered a sound environmental technology. But the premium consumers pay for such cars is rarely earned back over the course of the car's lifespan through savings at the pump. So Mr. Watanabe has been telling his engineers to reduce this premium by half. On Tuesday he said he has seen "steady progress" towards this goal.
Current hybrids generate their electricity from the friction created in the braking process. But Mr. Watanabe said that Toyota is also working on a plug-in version of the hybrid engine that would supplement that electricity by plugging into an outlet at home or at a filling station. Such a hybrid would be able to run further solely on electricity, and thus reduce levels of harmful emissions. But Toyota declined to say when such a car might be ready for release.
Toyota is also striving to improve the fuel efficiency of its standard gasoline-powered engines. In particular, it has since 2003 been developing a new, more-efficient 1.8-liter engine that it will put into compact and mid-sized vehicles from fall 2006.
The new V6 engine gets 5% better fuel efficiency because its parts create less friction than its predecessor engine, and because some of the crucial parts are lighter, the company said. |
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