Toyota hybrid sales 'to rise 15% this year'

Car-maker hopes offering hybrid version for each model, and new Prius, will make hybrids recession-proof

David Gow in Geneva
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 3 March 2009 15.50 GMT

Toyota expects to sell 15% more hybrid vehicles in Europe this year despite the savage downturn in the car market, according to company executives who were speaking ahead of the International Motor Show in Geneva.
The company, which is the largest car-maker in the world, plans to offer a hybrid version of every model it produces by 2020. It sold 58,000 hybrids in 2008.
Toyota predicts that Europe's overall market, including Russia, Ukraine and Turkey, will decline by 30% this year but that the firm will increase its share to 6% from 5.3% last year thanks to its "green" offer and ten new models.
The commitments come as the Japanese company launched its "third generation" Prius hybrid, which emits just 89 grams of carbon per kilometre, or well under the binding 120g set for 2012 under EU rules. That equates to fuel-efficiency of 3.9 litres per 100km.
The aim is to sell 400,000 of the new Prius – equipped with a "beltless" 1.8l 4-cylinder engine, electric water pump, exhaust gas recycling system and photovoltaic sunroof to cool the car in summer heat – by 2010. That is despite competition from the new hybrid Honda Insight, launched last month at the International Auto Show in Detroit.
Tadashi Arashima, the chief executive of Toyota Motor Europe, said: "Our idea is quite simple: whether you choose petrol, diesel or hybrid, each new Toyota vehicle should squeeze the best possible performance out of the least possible fuel."
Masatami Takimoto, head of global R&D and co-architect of Toyota's alternative fuel strategy went further. "By the time we reach 2030 there will be another oil price shock and petrol will become prohibitively expensive but by then we should have developed cars that run on alternative energy – whether from biomass, liquid coal and gas, nuclear power and renewables."
"What's important for car manufacturers is uncertainties about the future of petrol and CO2 reductions. Whether mild or full hybrids or clean diesel, they have to come up with environmentally-friendly vehicles as quickly as possible," he added.
Arashima admitted that Toyota's target to sell 1m hybrids globally by the early part of the next decade may have to be pushed back. He said that "in ten years, hybrids will be the mainstream".
The group is also planning to launch, like Peugeot Citroen, an electric vehicle for urban traffic, which will use plug-in hybrid technology. There should be 150 on European roads next year and a battery-powered car is planned for 2012.
But Dieter Zetsche, the head of Daimler, which builds Mercedes and Smart mini-cars, is sceptical about the market. "We have yet to see final proof that the relatively high number of people who say they would be interested in buying hybrids or electrics are willing to pay for them, as this technology continues to be pretty expensive."
When the economic crisis is over, he believes that consumers will switch back to bigger, more luxurious models such as the new Mercedes E-class saloon which emits 23% less carbon than its predecessor and has already picked up 40,000 pre-launch orders.
"For the mainstream the internal combustion engine will continue to be the powertrain of choice, though we will see electric cars and hybrids in smaller numbers," he said.