Toyota Announces Long-Term Plan For 100% Hybrid Fleet - NYT

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FRANKFURT, Sept. 13 (Bloomberg News) - The Toyota Motor Corporation said this week that all its vehicles would eventually be run by hybrid gasoline-electric motors, as record fuel prices curb demand for conventional automobiles. "In the future, the cars you see from Toyota will be 100 percent hybrid," Kazuo Okamoto, executive vice president, told reporters in Frankfurt Monday, without giving a specific timetable.

Toyota, Japan's biggest carmaker and second to General Motors worldwide, is aiming to make as many as 400,000 gasoline-electric vehicles in 2006, including Prius cars, Camry sedans, Highlander sport utility vehicles and Coaster buses, Katsuaki Watanabe, president of Toyota, said at an investor conference in New York Monday. That would be 60 percent more than 2005's objective, he added.

Toyota has sold 425,000 gasoline-electric cars since 1997 and is trying to profit from its lead over General Motors and Ford Motor. Mr. Watanabe said he aimed to cut production costs and halve the $5,000 price premium on such vehicles, without giving details.

"Toyota has been the leader of the pack in environmental technology, and they will probably continue to be," said Norihito Kanai, an analyst at Meiji Dresdner Asset Management in Tokyo. "Many of its rivals were at first not so aggressive in hybrids, but now we see everyone joining."

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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/14/automobiles/14toyota.html