Toyota said on Tuesday it would double the number of hybrid cars in its vehicle line-up soon after 2010, Reuters reported.
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Toyota currently sells seven models and has targeted sales of 1m hybrid cars annually soon after 2010.
According to the report, Toyota said it was working on improving technology across the powertrain spectrum – alternative-fuel engines, diesel engines, petrol engines and electric cars – but stressed that hybrid technology was crucial in boosting the performance of each system.
“We believe that hybrids will be the core technology in the 21st century,” Masatami Takimoto, executive vice president in charge of technology development, reportedly told a news conference.
Reuters said that Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe conceded that the price premium on hybrids was still too steep and that battery technology needed more work, but said the automaker was close to addressing those issues.
“The biggest task is to halve the cost for hybrids, and we’re seeing light at the end of the tunnel.”
Takimoto reportedly added that costs to develop advanced diesel technology to comply with tight emissions regulations to be introduced in a few years in the United States and Japan would add up, making such cars too expensive to justify the benefits.
“The potential for diesel technology is high, but whether the market would accept the high prices is a separate issue,” he said, adding that Toyota was not thinking now of offering diesel cars in Japan.
Reuters added that Toyota executives stressed the automaker did not have all of its eggs in the hybrid basket, saying it would offer the most suitable powertrain depending on market needs.
Toyota reportedly said it would introduce in the spring of 2007 flex-fuel vehicles that can run on 100% ethanol in Brazil, where sugar cane-based ethanol is widely used.
Toyota is also working on plug-in hybrid vehicles, which can be charged at home and provide electricity, as well as hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles and other technology, but said they would take many years to become commercially viable, Reuters noted.
