Toyota Keeps Focus on Gas, Diesel

Toyota Keeps Focus On Gas, Diesel - Discusses Future of Hybrids

As oil hits record-high prices, driving up the cost of gasoline, the auto industry is exploring new technologies to make vehicles more fuel-efficient. But Toyota Motor Co., which pioneered fuel-sipping gasoline-electric hybrid cars, still spends the biggest portion of its research dollars improving gasoline and diesel engines, according to Akihiko Saito, the Japanese automaker’s head of research and development, and product planning. Saito oversees the company’s $6 billion annual spending on research into new technologies, which include hybrid and fuel cell vehicles and advanced diesel engines. In his 36-year career at Toyota, Saito has worked on projects ranging from vibration testing to product planning for Toyota’s best-selling Corolla compact. He spoke with The Detroit News at the Paris auto show in September.

Q: Automakers are working on various ways to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles: hybrid cars, advanced diesel engines and ultra-clean fuel cell cars. What are Toyota’s priorities? A: No one can decisively say what the environmental technology of the future will be. It is in Toyota’s genes that, if you don’t have the answer, you explore all avenues of differing technologies. We’re still working on improving gasoline and diesel engines. We’re also trying to improve the efficiency of other technologies using alternative energy sources: fuel cell, bio-energy and compressed natural gas. Even if fuel cell cars emerge as the mainstay technology someday, it will be far in the future before the entire world switches over. Until then, different technologies will prevail in different regions, and we have to work on all of them to make them more efficient and competitive. Q: On which technologies is Toyota spending the greatest share of its research funds? A: Gasoline and diesel engines still receive the largest amount of the research and development budget. Q: Why did Toyota delay the launch of its hybrid Lexus sport utility vehicle, the RX 400h, to next spring? A: The postponement allowed us to refine the vehicle further and to expand capacity to produce more Prius hybrid cars. We’re giving preference to the Prius because there is such a long line of customers waiting for the cars. Q: How does the Lexus hybrid system compare with the one in the Toyota Prius? A: The Lexus is a different-size vehicle, and you can’t just put the hybrid from the Prius into the Lexus. There’s a new system for the Lexus - not in terms of particular components, but in terms of the overall construction of the engine system. Q: How is Toyota handling the strong demand in Europe for diesel cars? They now account for half the market. A: Unfortunately, we still produce only a small number of diesel engines, but we will increase that substantially. Last year, about 34 percent of our cars sold in Europe were equipped with diesel engines. Five years earlier, it was only 16 percent. This trend will continue. Diesel is not entirely environmentally friendly today. Diesel-powered vehicles emit less carbon dioxide but more nitrous oxides and particulate matter. In Europe, emission and tailpipe standards are more relaxed for diesel cars, but in the United States, the regulations are the same for both diesel and gasoline cars. Japanese regulations are in the middle - they’re not identical (for diesel and gas cars), but they don’t make it easy for diesel cars. For anyone interested in the environment, the great challenge is to come up with a clean diesel. Q: What do you think of the possibility of developing diesel hybrids? A: If you compare the cost of diesel and gasoline engines, diesel engines are more costly to produce. The cost will increase in the future as cleaner diesels are developed. So a diesel hybrid would be very expensive. It would be technically feasible and viable for large commercial vehicles but not for passenger cars because of the cost. Q: China is very eager to develop fuel-efficient cars. Which technologies would be most suitable for a country like China? A: The future for China is not defined because the government does not yet know the potential of the technologies out there. China has huge coal reserves, and it would be important in any strategy to make use of these coal reserves -not using the coal directly but by deriving liquefied natural gas. Q: Toyota has agreed to build hybrid cars in China with its Chinese venture partner, First Automotive Works. Are you concerned about patent violations or other forms of piracy? A: We believe our existing agreement will protect our intellectual property.

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