In less than three years, Toyota will have 20
new or redesigned hybrids worldwide — plus a hydrogen fuel-cell car.
That's what Bob Carter, who heads automotive operations at Toyota's U.S.
arm, told reporters this morning. Carter spoke at a J.D. Power and
Associates automotive conference on the eve of this week's 2013 New York
International Auto Show.
Despite the proliferation — if not the sales — of electric cars, Toyota
believes "hybrids will remain a core technology" because they can be
adapted to other environmental areas, Carter said. Given the number of
cars from Toyota and its Lexus and Scion divisions, 20 hybrids seems
like a more attainable goal than the automaker's gas-electric gauntlet thrown in 2006, which declared that every forthcoming redesign would include a hybrid version. Toyota backed off that pledge two years later.
Carter also promised radical changes for the next-generation Toyota Corolla, which the automaker presaged with the sculpted Corolla Furia concept at January's 2013 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
"It's no secret that Corolla is very late in its life cycle," Carter
said. "No one ever bought a Corolla because they thought they would look
good driving it."
That could change.
"We have the engineering resources where we can design and engineer" the
next Corolla specifically for the U.S. market, Carter said. Toyota has
expanded those resources with its latest management shakeup,
which gives regional leaders more latitude to build cars for their
markets. That means newly elevated U.S. CEO Jim Lentz has the keys to
build cars explicitly for the U.S.
What introductions would Carter like to see?
"I would love to see a sports car," he said. "I would love to see expansions to our truck lines."
Courtesy of Cars.com
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