For the last several years Toyota has held an annual get together following the close of the first day of media previews at the Detroit Auto Show. This year's shin-dig brought with it several surprises. Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe made an unannounced appearance and delivered about a ten minute address to the gathered crowd of automotive hacks. He reviewed Toyota's commitment to sustainable mobility. Toyota plans to continue developing a variety of advanced technologies including hybrids, clean diesels and hydrogen fuel cells. They plan to work on and promote a changes in transportation such as mass transit, mixed mobility, and intelligent highway systems. Mixed mobility includes ideas like the iGo personal transporters that Toyota has been showing in the last couple of years. Fueling systems for future vehicles such as hydrogen fueling stations and recharging kiosks will be developed and promoted by Toyota in partnerships with governments, academia and other energy and transportation companies.

One important element for Toyota is developing new technologies in-house rather purchasing or licensing from outside companies. In this way they can learn the lessons of the development and work faster. Among the new power-trains Toyota plans to introduce in the near future are a clean diesel engine for the large Tundra pickup and Sequoia SUV. Toyota Communications VP was unable to confirm if the engine recently introduced in overseas market Land Cruisers would be the basis for the US engine but that seems likely. No on-sale date was available for the new diesel although Miller did confirm that the new fuel economy requirements were part of the decision. With all three US automakers introducing light duty diesels to their trucks next year, Toyota surely won't want to be far behind.

Continue reading what else Watanabe had to say after the jump.

[Source: Toyota]

Click on the photo for a gallery of high-res images of the Hybrid-X Concept

Toyota CEO Katsuaki Watanabe spoke to BusinessWeek recently and confirmed that the next-generation Prius will definitely have a lithium ion battery when it comes out later in 2008. Watanabe also said that Toyota was focusing on improving both the performance and efficiency of their third-generation hybrid system. The target is to cut both the size and the cost of the next-generation hybrid system by half.

Watanabe acknowledged that they had concerns with the durability and robustness of lithium ion batteries in automotive applications, due to the extreme conditions they must endure in automotive applications compared to consumer electronics. They are actively testing and developing the batteries to be able to work reliably in cars. In addition to the batteries, Toyota is also cutting the size of the motors and inverters in half compared to the current cars. If they can accomplish all of those goals they will be able to incorporate hybrid drive-trains in to more of their vehicles and widen their lead further. The only thing that wasn't mentioned was the plug-in possibility, so we'll have to wait longer to find out if that is included.



[Source: BusinessWeek]

In a long interview, Toyota Motor Corp. President Katsuaki Watanabe outlined how he likes to nip small problems in the bud before they grow to become major ones. For example, Toyota sales are currently strong, but this is placing pressure on production, which lead Toyota to open a truck plant outside San Antonio and set up a line to build Camrys at the Subaru of Indiana Automotive plant. More production capacity is also being brought online in Canada and Mexico leading Toyota to be able to build 2 million vehicles a year in North America by mid-2008.

Asked about possible new Tundra models, it was revealed that Toyota is considering all options including diesel, hybrid or even bioethanol. Toyota's hybrid sales are expected to top 300,000 in 2007 and the recent deal to source diesel engines from Isuzu should be completed by the end of the year.

In a wide-ranging conversation, Watanabe shared his vision of his own dream car which would make the ambient air cleaner, and you healthier, the more you drive. It would also travel around the world on a single tank of fuel and cause no harm to people and have no accidents.

Asked, "Specifically, then, what is Toyota doing to alleviate global warming?", Watanabe replied, "First and foremost for us is to create cars that will be environmentally friendly and that will alleviate global warming."

"Then, as an industry, we need to cooperate with each other so that we will be able to find a solution. And if you extend the range to other sectors, like power generation and big appliance manufacturers, all of those sectors have to share the concern and make a commitment. Those are the things that we as a business must do."

Related:

• Thanks to new EPA mileage standards, Tundra isn't in a hurry for 2008 designation
• Prius, Bluetec make list of best cars for commuting
• Next-Gen Prius to get lithium ion battery and 113 mpg

[Source: James B. Treece / Automotive News]

By next April Fool's Day, Toyota's savings from cutting the complexity of its vehicles' onboard computer systems will kick in and increase the company's profits. Another major source of profit in the years to come will be hybrid vehicles, said Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe earlier this week and reported by Autoweek.

Toyota is planning on selling a million hybrid cars a year, starting in the 2010's, Watanabe said. This will be accomplished by expanding the hybrid line and making the cars cheaper. In the last fiscal year Toyota sold 263,000 hybrids, which was up from 143,000 the previous year. Moving to a million hybrid units a year will mean that the hybrid segment will have to grow much faster than the overall 6 percent annual increase Watanabe predicts for Toyota's global sales next year.

[Source: Autoweek]