Toyota To Break Free Of Supplier Issues And Produce Their Own Hybrid Batteries In North America

Toyota Motor Corp will build batteries for its hybrids in North America eventually, as part of a plan to drive down the production costs of fuel-efficient models like its top-selling Prius.

As part of that strategy, Toyota expects that its next-generation Prius will have a profit margin close to that of a traditional sedan like the Corolla, a senior executive said on Friday.

Toyota, like other major automakers, does not typically detail vehicle-by-vehicle profitability. But the high cost of developing new hybrid systems and batteries has widely been seen as a constraint on the initial profitability of such models.

U.S. automaker General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has said it expects to lose money initially by selling its all-electric Chevy Volt, due to the high cost of battery packs.

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BigShow50 - 9/8/2008 2:43:34 PM

+1 Boost

Once this happens, it's a no brainer which to drive(Toyota Prius, or even Honda Insight of coarse), especially when the Chevy Volt will be listed anywhere from $30,000.00 to $40,000.00 U.S.....yikes!!! Good luck on that so called "Volt-Thing innovations Bobby No Clue Lutz!!!"...LMAO!!!

JRobUSC - 9/8/2008 3:23:20 PM

+2 Boost

except for the fact that the Volt will get the equivalent of over 100mpg for people who drive less than 40 miles per day or can plug the car in between 40 mile drives. That's a lot of driving too, the equivalent of almost 15k miles/yr. I drive less than 10k miles/yr, mostly higheway, meaning I'd pretty much only be on the battery in the Volt and the gas engine would hardly ever need to recharge the batteries, so the gas savings would be fairly astronomical. That would not be the case with a hybrid.

But yeah, aside from that, it's a no brainer.

Lemonade - 9/8/2008 4:17:41 PM

+1 Boost

I'm sorry JRobUSC, but I'm not going to blow $30K-$40K on a vehicle only to try and plan my day around 40 miles of driving.

Does anybody know how much it cost to fully charge the Volt?

JRobUSC - 9/8/2008 5:27:06 PM

+2 Boost

lemonade, I'm not buying a Volt either, I'll make due with my 20mpg 535xi. But you're missing the point. You don't have to "plan around driving only 40 miles per day", it's not like the car stops driving after 40 miles. It just turns on the gas engine to charge the batteries after roughly 40 miles. It's still getting (supposedly) fantastic economy at that point, because the gas engine doesn't propel the car, it just charges the batteries. Besides, 40 miles/day is plenty for most people, myself included. That's 14600 miles/yr, well within typical driving parameters for most Americans. And if most of it is highway, which is also the case for the majority of drivers, then most of the time the car will be running on batteries alone. Compare that to a hybrid, which uses the gas engine most of the time on the highway, and you have some potentially pretty significant savings.

olscuul - 9/8/2008 9:20:48 PM

+1 Boost

what does that say about the profitablity of the prius now? another reason there was a shortage of supply in addition to demand.

enthusiastx11 - 9/9/2008 11:24:52 AM

-1 Boost

go away. nobody care what you have to say.