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August 3, 2005
Toyota Announces Plans for Hybrid Global Domination
Jim Press, President of Toyota's U.S. arm, has been quoted as saying 25% of the company's vehicles will be hybrids by the end of the decade, and the company has a stated goal to sell at least one million hybrids globally within two to three years after that.
While this could easily be dismissed as hyping an early success, a closer look at Toyota's recent sales numbers reveals the distinct plausibility of reaching this mark.
In July 2005, Toyota sold 14,517 hybrid vehicles, between the Prius, Highlander and Lexus RX400h. The Prius sold 9,691 units, representing 8.9% of Toyota-brand passenger car sales -- and third in volume only to the monstrous mass-market sellers, the Camry and Corolla.
Press has said about 600,000 of Toyota's million unit goal will come from the U.S., which equates to 50,000 units a month.
Looking at the 14,517 unit mark this month, that goal doesn't look so blue sky, does it? Also, consider that Toyota will have an additional 10 hybrids available, which more than quadruples their current offerings -- and Toyota is merely talking about quadrupling monthly hybrid sales.
Another way to look at this publicly stated goal is by using the 600,000 unit annual number, and Press' assertion that hybrids will comprise 25% of sales in the next 7-8 years. As of this month, Toyota is heading for a sales result of 2.28 million units, and that squares with the 25%/600,000 unit goal. As a matter of fact, given current trends, it gives them a little bit of wiggle room.
In other words, the stated hybrid goals are in line with what I would call a corollary of the Toyota Way -- state a lofty sounding goal, but only after you have the structural underpinnings to support it.
Posted by Frank at August 3, 2005 9:44 PM | Filed under Auto News
| Hybrid
| Toyota