Report: Toyota plans to sell ethanol cars in US by 2008

[MikeMike]

Report: Toyota plans to sell ethanol cars in US by 2008

Japanese car maker will follow lead of GM and Ford. Currently, only plans for Brazilian market are confirmed.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp. plans to sell ethanol-powered vehicles in the United States by 2008, following the lead of domestics General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing an unnamed company executive.

A Toyota spokeswoman in Tokyo acknowledged that Japan's top auto maker was developing flexible-fuel vehicles, mainly for the ethanol-smitten Brazilian market for starters, but declined to disclose specific product plans.

"We're proceeding with development of ethanol-based cars for Brazil, but for other markets we are gauging what needs there are first," she said.

Toyota, a market leader in gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, has resisted the technology amid worries about the impact of highly corrosive ethanol on rubber seals in the engine, the Financial Times said.

U.S. auto makers have produced about 6 million flexible-fuel vehicles, with many running on E85, or a fuel blend consisting of 85 percent ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, and 15 percent gasoline.

Toyota's new vehicle would be fitted with anti-corrosive parts to meet U.S. regulations, but the auto maker suggested that a less ambitious strategy of mixing only 10-15 percent ethanol into gasoline might produce greater savings, the paper said.

Toyota is still keen to spread the use of hybrid vehicles, which save fuel by twinning a conventional engine with an electric motor, the spokeswoman said.

President Bush has called for more ethanol use to reduce foreign oil imports, but fewer than 1,000 of the nation's 170,000 filling stations currently sell E85.

Bush has set a six-year goal for making ethanol practical and competitive as an alternative fuel, and vowed to fund additional research into ways to make it not just from the commonly used corn but also from wood chips or grasses.

toyota is SOOO late to this game.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE
toyota is SOOO late to this game.

Let the other companies pay the high cost of being first to a low profit niche. Then swing in when the time is right to snatch the market share away. Its the perfect way to maximize profits in a low profit niche.

 

[NutBucket]

Because where do you fill up with Ethanol?

 

[MikeMike]

Originally posted by: dullard

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE
toyota is SOOO late to this game.

Let the other companies pay the high cost of being first to a low profit niche. Then swing in when the time is right to snatch the market share away. Its the perfect way to maximize profits in a low profit niche.

i needed to throw in a smilie, which im about to do.

and, given your reasoning, then why does everyone bitch that GM hasnt entered the hybrid market yet?

 

[OrganizedChaos]

i say if anything there still early. i don't think i have a public e85 station within 800 miles of where i live.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE
and, given your reasoning, then why does everyone bitch that GM hasnt entered the hybrid market yet?

Because we aren't GM and we don't care about GM profits.

 

[Ktulu]

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE

Originally posted by: dullard

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE
toyota is SOOO late to this game.

Let the other companies pay the high cost of being first to a low profit niche. Then swing in when the time is right to snatch the market share away. Its the perfect way to maximize profits in a low profit niche.

then why does everyone bitch that GM hasnt entered the hybrid market yet?

Any one that actually thinks that is completely ignorant on the subject.