Toyota to Make 100,000 Units of Hybrid Car - Paper
Date: 21-Jul-08
Country: JAPAN
The new car, which will be Toyota's second dedicated hybrid model after the hot-selling Prius, will have a 2- to 2.5-litre engine and will also be sold under the company's luxury Lexus brandname, the paper said.
Toyota Motor Kyushu Inc, in Fukuoka prefecture, currently builds a gasoline-electric hybrid version of the Toyota Harrier sport utility vehicle, sold as the Lexus RX outside Japan, as well as the Highlander SUV.
Hit by sinking demand for fuel-thirsty SUVs and pickup trucks, Toyota this month announced a big overhaul of its North American manufacturing structure which included a plan to build the Highlander at a truck factory in Indiana from late 2009.
Toyota Motor Kyushu will make adjustments to its factory to switch production from the North America-bound Highlander to the new hybrid model, the Nikkei said.
Toyota aims to sell at least 1 million hybrid vehicles annually in the early part of the next decade -- more than double what it sold last year.
Toyota has said it would showcase a new hybrid model under both the Toyota and Lexus brand names at the annual Detroit auto show next January.
(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; editing by Clarence Fernandez)