Toyota won’t be opening a green Prius sub-brand

I do hope that one of the alternate body styles will be a small pickup.

It would make my DH so happy!

 

That makes complete sense. Keep the number of brands limited to the current 3.

The "Prius" vehicle should always just be their most effienct vehicle. All of the models will have a "hybrid" option, but they should use the "Prius" model to be pushing the limit.

 

Help me translate British English - the 'estate variant' is a station wagon, right? And MPV is a multi-person vehicle, like a small minivan?

 

MPV is a multi purpose vehicle here. That is a vehicle which may carry a family of 7 around one day but by folding seats it can carry building material etc.
Yes an estate is a station wagon.

In the UK what you refer to as a minivan is a big vehicle. Only the USA use belittling names for practical cars but add the word sport to the name of useless vehicles like a utility with massive wheels, bad handling and leather seats.

 

From a competitve standpoint I would welcome a prius brand of Toyota motor corp. It would water-down the research & development, marketing and production controls of the Toyota brand and cannibalize some sales from the other three toyota brands.

 

Finally I can reveal what I had learned from Toyota Caetano (Portuguese importer), since Miguel has already made it public: The next Prius will have different ICE displacement sizes for Europe and USA.

It makes sense to me. We don't need and we are not used to having cars with so much muscle as you fellow Americans are. We need and we are used to small (1000cc to 1600cc) gasoline cars. The Prius with its 1500cc engine and HSD MGs is more than adequate.

Worst than that, most European countries tax cars either by engine size or by horsepower. Even with an environment bonus tax and hybrid bonus tax, a 1800cc Prius would be even harder to sell. Not to mention that it would loose to diesels easier than now.

I'm still amazed to read once again what I've been told earlier: the new 2010 Prius will make around 3 litres per 100 km (90 imperial MPG). AMAZING! UNBELIEVABLE! A car with that size, with that power... wau... diesels... eat my dust...

GO TOYOTA GO GO GO!!!

 

Put in other words: "I wish Toyota would be like GM branding ... watered-down R&D, poor marketing & Production controls ..." Seems like backwards thinking. What, GM can't kill off some of its bloated/redundant lines to be more like toyota?

 

This makes a lot of sense from a business perspective. Thanks for the input.

 

Re: Toyota won’t be opening a green Prius sub-brand

Just to exit trading barbs for a second. How could GM (or any other Car Manufacturer selling in the US) do this? With dealers being seperate business entities, this looks to be something that should not be something that GM is responsible for solving....although it needs solving.

 

Would make little difference, I hardly ever brake.

 

Missing from this discussion are the fruits of a three year, cost cutting effort at Toyota. They have applied their considerable talent at standardizing parts and componets so they can span more product lines and be more affordable. For example, the October review Ken@Japan posted shows a sketch of the next generation transaxle, which in cross section looks to be about half the size of the current NHW20. They have also unified many of their control computers by cutting the number to less than half for all models.

As the fruits of these efforts roll into the assembly lines, the prices can remain the same and the profit rate slowly increase. This profitability means head-to-head competition with their honorable competition puts Toyota at a long-term advantage. To make profits, their competition has to raise prices and Toyota just holds theirs constant for more market share and fiscal strength.

In the hybrid area, Toyota is on the verge of releasing their next generation hybrid electric. The first generation, NHW10, proved it would work. The second and third generations including the NHW11, NHW20, Camry, Highlander and Lexus models, explored advanced elements. Each had unique capabilities and characteristics in quantities large enough to gather valuable 'lessons learned.'

The next generation Prius and other hybrid models, will soon harvest these 'lessons learned' and a quantitative performance step up. Things like improved and rapid warm-up, control law refinements, engines without throttles, improved NiMH batteries, control electronics, suspension and rolling drag reductions will complete the story. Thanks to their cost saving efforts (cost cutting is laying off resources, cost saving is using existing resources better,) Toyota will remain financially viable.

The real coup will be when Toyota begins fitting hybrid drive systems into the existing vehicle models. For a modest loss of space and weight, selling vehicles that get 30-50% better mileage than their competition in times of higher fuel prices will decimate their competition.

What about Honda? It is hard to tell. Their technical approach to hybrids has been to optimize their gas engines ... to bring them into diesel efficiency range without diesel weight and drawbacks.

As for changing battery chemistry from NiMH, it detracts from the seeing the whole system. I'm not impressed with LiON as being the magic bullet when the other vehicle systems are left to hit-or-miss optimization. For example, suspension changes.

We know higher pressure tires have better grip and lower rolling drag. But higher pressure tires need a softer shock absorber to insulate the cabin from road surface induced vibration and noise. But there is no evidence of wide-spread adoption of this approach. Even now, vehicles are sold with 'fat tires' ... pure nonsense. Worse, it looks like there is an active program to keep after-market tire rolling resistance a secret from owners.

So I see a slow, incremental progress in Toyota that eventually expands hybrids into every vehicle model as an option. This makes the most sense because it maximizes the use of standard parts that can be assembled into mission specific body styles. It may seem boring until you pay the fuel bill.

Bob Wilson

 

Slow down and back off.
My "mileage" is there and plain to see at the bottom of every one of my posts.

My daily commute,
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=d&saddr=Equestrian+Dr&daddr=-35.092103,138.562832+to:Bishops+Hill+Rd+to:Main+South+Rd+to:Fiveash+Dr+to:West+Tce+to:Main+North+Rd+to:Wright+Rd&hl=en&geocode=Ffxt6P0d-VRCCA%3B%3BFQS26P0dxFBCCA%3BFb8U6f0dpkBCCA%3BFSbo6f0dJrdCCA%3BFcL_6v0dtq5CCA%3BFVB67P0d1gZDCA%3BFbpv7P0dglVDCA&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=13&via=1,2,3,4,5,6&sll=-35.082972,138.577251&sspn=0.079368,0.131836&ie=UTF8&ll=-34.965311,138.535538&spn=0.317929,0.527344&z=11
I find going nearer the heart of the city reaps better consumption.

My brakes are showing little wear after 100,000+ kilometres.

I don't see any advantage in a separate hybrid brand. I know we accuse GM of green wash but Toyota also bask in the green light. A separate brand would dilute the light on the Toyota brand which currently shines bright.

 

I think the problem with your perspective Rybold is that you are far too serious to be taken seriously Did you miss the irony in the post or did you take this literally ?

Lighten up, relax and move on

 

Beat me by mere seconds Patsparks ! Glad I got your perspective right.