Toyota planning 10 more hybrids By the end of this decade, Toyota plans for 25 percent of U.S. sales to be hybrid vehicles. NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Toyota Motor Corp. plans to introduce 10 more gasoline-electric hybrid models globally by early next decade in a push to boost total sales of hybrids to 1 million, a top Toyota U.S. executive said. The world's second-biggest automaker is also aiming for hybrid vehicles to account for at least 25 percent of its U.S. sales in the same time period, Jim Press, Toyota's U.S. president and chief operating officer, told Reuters on the sidelines of an auto conference in this northern Michigan resort. Meeting a global goal of 1 million hybrid vehicles would mean that Toyota would have to sell about 600,000 vehicles in the U.S. alone, Press said, according to a report from Automotive News, an industry newspaper. "To achieve that goal, we will have to look at offering hybrid power systems in virtually all of our vehicles, including trucks," Press told Automotive News. http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/03/Autos/toyo...ta_hybrid_push/
Here's the link to the same story as interpreted by the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/03/automobi...cnd-toyota.html
Why have hybrids that get almost as bad MPGs as the non-hybrid models? Are all hybrids PZEV or something? Somebody will have battery trouble someday, and wonder why they even bothered...
:mrgreen: Funny. Be nice now. You know he did not understand the question. Tony. The button referred to (in article) is probably to change the ECU programming to allow better acceleration. Similar to sport/comfort setting for suspension in some cars.
I figured they were talking about the EV button. I bet that if you asked the majority of American Prius owners, they would have no idea what an EV button is. I only know about it because of Priuschat and the international folks. So the way I see it, reporters and writers know even less. I did figure there would be something else by the time 2010 rolls around. But in the end, if I could EV to the first stoplight every morning, where my engine sits and runs to warm up, I could let the engine warm while I'm actually moving. This action alone would greatly improve my mileage.
But your engine would still have to replace the energy used up in your battery while you were running EV, no? My impression, and I'm no expert, is that the EV switch is more for convenience than improving your mileage by any measurable amount. I'm sure that if I'm mistaken, the many experts around here will help me see the light. And I welcome that.
When my engine runs at a stoplight, I am realizing exactly zero miles per gallon. I could sit there until I burn a gallon of gas. If my engine runs to warm itself up while I'm moving down the highway, I'm still consuming gasoline, only now I'm moving which means that I'm realizing better than zero miles per gallon. I also think it's cool to be able to force the car to stay in stealth as I move through the parking lot. ;-)
My thought exactly. In fact, when I'm in this situation, I can actually watch the average go down on the MFD.
