Toyota Denies Government Helped Fund Prius Development

hill-san, Or, the money wasted for funding the Clinton-Gore days
Super-car-Project of America..( Foreigns rebuffed ) To the tune of A "Billion" that's _subsidy._ Americas tax money...
Toyota stated they spent near "Billion" _own money_ developing the Prius's THS 'cause
Toyota was so afraid that Americas project if succesfull, then will put Toyota as way behind. and uncompetitive. Toyota probably went to
Japan Inc. but I'm sure beeing told, You have more foreign currency than
Bank of Japan, so use your own money !

 

The US auto makers not only had help from the US government, they also had the Mother Earth News as a resourse, but they failed to take advantage. Here is the initial concept for the Volt:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Gree...-01/An-Amazing-75-MPG-Hybrid-Electic-Car.aspx

 

He's over there taking a beating, like a good suburban saleman. Ya never saw anyone who loves so much, to lead w/ their chin.

 

Yes, he did finally come back. I didn't think he would. Now he says his prediction for $2.65 gas is just delayed for a few months.

 

here's the bottom line......i think that ALMOST EVERYONE HERE would like to say a hearty THANK YOU to TOYOTA for creating such a great car........our beloved prius's.

it doesn't matter to me WHO funded the development...........whatever!!!!

we here are driving a very technologically advanced car that does it's job extremely well.........that's that and it is what it is.......

do we agree to this???

cheers

:tea::flame:

 

Yes, I do

The Big 3 have also benefited. For some reason the GM apologists have either forgotten - or purposely ignored - the fact that US taxpayers actually paid to have the Prius disected and reverse engineered

The Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Labs - under the auspices of FreedomCAR, took apart a 2004 Prius. Unlike ORNL's work on nuclear weapons, the Prius report is entirely public domain.

The OSTI filing number is ORNL/TM-2006/423. Or for convenience, follow this OSTI link

Information Bridge: DOE Scientific and Technical Information - Sponsored by OSTI

So much for this horrible conspiracy that the GM apoligists have suggested. Or are they hinting that the overpaid management at GM is simply incapable of following an OSTI link

 

I actually remember reading this article in 1979 !

 

"GM executives are now playing up their hybrid efforts and racing to retool assembly lines in order to crank out up to 1 million hybrids by 2007. "

Thanks for the history article, jayman. The above from the 2004 article.

wow, are they just a bit under the million mark?

And I dare say they are STILL "playing up the hybrid efforts" with all the marketing gimmicks they can put out. doing EVERYTHING but produce a high-efficient, low-emission car for the masses.

How can anyone out there defend GM? I don't even have to go the EV-1-crushings or the LA-mass-transit-takeover or the selling-of-high-capacity-EV-battery-patents-to-an-OIL-company route. GM good for America? THAT is a myth like no other myth.

Sheesh, I don't even know why I get sucked into this every time...it's just so maddening.

 

Here is an article in my local paper that will probably irritate you, it irritated me.

Business - The outlook for hydrogen fuel-cell cars in California - sacbee.com

An interview with Larry Burns, who since 1998 has headed Research & Development and Planning for General Motors Corp., discussed the road ahead for hydrogen.

 

Even if Toyota received government help, as so many other posters already posted, US Automakers received "bail-out" money as well as "research funds" which amounted to very little for the consumer.
But what people forget is the basics of our US capitalistic economy:
We are taxed on income. Government funding equals free cash and even better expense tax write-offs even for "failures" as long as you spend. Think about that for a moment.
And then take a look at what DARPA from its inception to how it has "evolved" or "de-evolved" over the years and you can see what our tax dollars yield.
DARPA Home

The thing is, I think its a good thing if a company could use those funds to further advance and even profit from a finished product that would drive society forward and pay part it back to further other fields. However, as I said earlier, in the USA we are taxed for working hard to make a living (money) but you can expense spending money in various ways.