Future Toyota Cars will be 100 per cent Hybrid

(Akron/Tire Review) Toyota Motor Corp. says record fuel prices will reduce demand for conventional vehicles and increase demand in hybrids. As a result, future Toyota vehicles will be 100 per cent hybrid, according to executive vice president Kazuo Okamoto. He did not specify a date.

At an investor conference in New York, Katsuaki Watanabe, Toyota president, said the carmaker plans to produce 400,000 hybrid vehicles in 2006, which is 60 per cent more than 2005’s target. Watanabe also said he would cut product costs and cut the $5,000 price premium in half.