Hybrid technology has marked a breakthrough in the reduction of fuel consumption and carbon emissions but still diesel powered cars manage to offer the same advantages and have much better performance and are also quiet cheaper.
Looking at this Toyota has taken an initiative to develop cheaper hybrid systems. The company has already started working on this issue and Masatami Takimoto, Toyota’s vice president in charge of powertrain development revealed that the results of company’s efforts of cost cutting on the electric motor, battery and inverter are positive.
Toyota has a projection of producing all the cars as hybrid cars by 2020 and jump the sales to one million hybrids annually. Last year Toyota sold 313,000 hybrids and this year it’s expecting close to 430,000 sales. The most popular hybrid model, the Prius that suffered high price due to tax credits will be launched in 2009 with a cheaper lithium-ion battery system.
With such efforts the company will surely reach its targets and make a good hold on market as plug-in hybrids are not yet feasible, and diesel vehicles will cost much more when compared to these hybrid vehicles as they require expensive particulate filters and other traps that cost almost as much as the first generation hybrid technology.
Via: motorauthority
