Toyota is all set to slash the price and sizes of its hybrid system by around half for the next-generation Prius model. The automaker will also be using a nickel-metal hydride instead of lithium-ion battery.
However, the world’s biggest automaker has not publicly disclosed a timeframe for the introduction of the third-generation Prius model. Speculations are that the launch of late 2008 model will be delayed because of concerns over the safety of lithium-ion batteries.
Toyota, which initiated the gasoline-electric hybrid powertrain with the Prius in 1997, has set a target of selling 1 million hybrid vehicles yearly soon after 2010. It anticipates to eventually making the system available across its vehicle line-up.
Toyota would design all of its gasoline-electric cars in a way that would make them instantly recognizable as a hybrid in order to give sales of future hybrid models a boost.
The automaker agreed that diesel engines were logically better suited for saving fuel over long-distance cruising than hybrids, which capture energy lost during stop-and-start city driving.
Executive Vice President Kazuo Okamoto, in charge of Toyota’s research and development quoted:
When we went from the first-generation Prius to the second-generation, we did the same thing. Toyota’s future hybrids would be just as good - if not better - than today’s diesels on the highway.
[Courtesy: Automotive News]
