Hybrids are the way, says US Toyota president
According to Automotive News, one-quarter
of Toyota Motor Corp.’s U.S. sales by the end of the decade
will be hybrid vehicles, Jim Press, president of Toyota Motor
Sales U.S.A. is reported to be saying.
Toyota
Hybrid
Toyota already has 10 hybrid vehicles under
development for global markets, in addition to the ones it
already has launched, Press said. Those will go on sale
between now and the end of the decade, he said.
Hybrids could account for “10, 12 or 15
percent” of industry-wide sales by the end of the decade, he
said, adding that he could not be specific about the
percentage because he did not know what other automakers had
planned.
However, “the demand will be there,”
Press said.
Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe has set
a new goal of 1 million hybrid sales a year globally early
next decade. “At our current rate of sales, that’s about
600,000 hybrids in the U.S.,” Press said. “To achieve that
goal, we will have to look at offering hybrid power systems in
virtually all of our vehicles, including trucks.”
As a very interesting development, Press gave a hint of an
option yet to come - power boosting. He said it is possible
that future hybrid owners may be able to choose whether they
want to see improved mileage or performance from a hybrid
powertrain, by pushing a button on the instrument panel.
The US
discovers that when prices go down, sales go up!
With GM, Ford and Chrysler all offering big
discounts to lower the price ticket in the showrooms, the Big
3 were shaking hands with themselves after recording a
record-breaking July sales month.
Nissan
Infiniti
However, according to Automotive News,
Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. and Nissan North America Inc.,
also posted their best sales month in the US. They were not
the only ones, as DaimlerChrysler, including Mercedes-Benz,
sold 260,945 units in July, a boost of 25.1 percent for the
month. Year-to-date, the automaker has sold 1,547,536
vehicles, up 6.9 percent from the same period in 2004.
GM said its July sales rose 15.2 percent,
boosted by the GM Employee Discount for Everyone incentive
program. But there are more telling figures available. For the
year, GM has sold 2,844,839 vehicles, which is only a 4.3
percent increase from the same time last year.
Nissan +14.8 percent
Toyota +10.4
Hyundai +8.2
DaimlerChrysler + 6.9
Suzuki +6.2
Subaru +5.1
GM +4.3
Porsche +2.8
Honda +2.4
BMW +2.4
Ford Motor Corp +0.2
VW -16.5 percent
Mitsubishi -32.6
Isuzu -51.3
Similar “Employee pricing” gave Ford
Motor sales a much-needed 28.5 percent increase for the month
and triggered record monthly sales for the Ford F-series
pickup. Ford numbers include Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover
and Volvo, but not Mazda. However, here is the ‘real’
situation. July sales for Ford Motor lifted the automaker’s
year-to-date sales total to 1,974,377, which is only 0.2
percent better than 2004.
Toyota sales, including Lexus and Scion,
jumped 8.1 percent with a total of 216,417 vehicles, bringing
its year-to-date sales to 1,330,487, a 10.4 percent increase
from the same period in 2004. This puts GM and Ford still well
behind the 8 ball.
Other comparisons include American Honda
Motor Co., including Acura, which posted an increase of 10.3
percent for the month but only 2.4 percent for the year.
Hyundai Motor America sales, including Kia, climbed 10.5
percent in July, and for the year, it is up 8.2 percent.
Nissan said combined Nissan and Infiniti
sales in July were 15 percent better than last July, bringing
its annual total for the year so far to 650,021, which is 14.8
percent better than its year-to-date sales in 2004. And
that’s a number to be crowing about!
BMW, including Mini and Rolls-Royce, had a
strong month, reporting an 11.4 percent sales increase, but
again when you look at the YTD figures that are only up 2.4
percent so far this year.
Those are some of the positive growth
figures, but not all the majors had reason to celebrate.
Volkswagen’s U.S. car sales declined 12 percent to 28,857
units in July. That brought U.S. sales for the first seven
months to 164,972 units, down 16.5 percent. Those numbers
include Audi and Bentley.
Isuzu and Mitsubishi continued their
headlong rush downwards, with Isuzu recording a 51.3 percent
fall compared to the seven months in 2004, while Mitsubishi
went down 32.6 percent in the same period.
Analyst David Healy of Burnham Securities
claimed that “the perception that American companies still
produce garbage, as they actually did during much of the 1970s
and 1980s, is proving most difficult to eradicate. The poor
quality of many of these old models has bred a new generation
of car buyers who would never consider entering a domestic
brand showroom,” he added.
GM and Ford both said that they are
trimming sticker prices for many vehicles in the 2006 model
year. By contrast, Toyota has said its 2006 prices will be
slightly higher. Now there’s a company with confidence in
its product line-up!
Here are the comparative figures for the
seven months of 2004 against 2005. I believe they show the
true growth of the brand or otherwise.
Obviously the figures from America do not correspond
exactly with the Thailand situation, where for example, the
Chevrolet Colorado seems to be a top seller, and Isuzu
pick-ups are everywhere, but the figures do show the strength
of the brands in the world’s largest marketplace. Or their
weaknesses!
A1 GP is
definitely up and running
Despite the doomsayers, the A1 GP series
looks as if it will be very strong, even in its first year.
The first two day test held at Silverstone in the UK had 16
cars running and all 16 showed ultimate reliability from their
engines and chassis. The top 10 cars were within a second of
the pole sitter.
As opposed to the usual Schumacher versus
Alonso concept, since each car represents a country, it was
the UK that was the quickest, followed by Brazil! Countries
‘in’ at this stage include Australia and the UK, Pakistan,
India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan and China, South Africa,
Egypt, Bahrain, UAE, plus Sweden, Germany, France, Portugal,
Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Canada, USA, Brazil and
Argentina.
A1 Grand Prix series presents a level
playing field. The cars are identical single-seater A1 racing
cars, built by Lola, and powered by identical 550 bhp Zytek A1
Grand Prix V8 engines.
To keep the playing field level, no driver
aids are allowed. No driver aids! Is this not what we have
been calling for? We, the viewing public, want to see the
drivers change gears and use the clutch, just like we do. We
want to see them manage their own starts, none of this
“Renault have better starts than the other cars” rubbish.
We want to see if driver B can get the drop at the start
better than driver D.
The series kicks off at Brands Hatch,
and here is the (almost) finalized A1 GP calendar:
25 September 2005 Brands Hatch UK
9 October Eurospeedway, Germany
23 October Estoril, Portugal
6 November Eastern Creek, Australia
20 November Sepang, Malaysia
11 December Dubai, UAE
15 January 2006 TBA (Indonesia or Singapore)
29 January Durban or Cape Town, South Africa
12 February Monterrey, Mexico
26 February San Antonio, USA
12 March Laguna Seca, USA
26 March Beijing Goldenport, China
To maintain the level playing field, so
there is no more of the Bridgestone versus Michelin debate,
there will be one tyre supplier, which is Cooper Tires (Avon),
who have been supplying Formula 3000 for the past years, so
they know what they are about too.
To keep the world informed, TV coverage is
also in place with Sky Sports taking up broadcasting rights.
Full coverage from each round of the international FIA
sanctioned series will be broadcast exclusively live, with
practice sessions, qualifying and the races themselves. So how
do you get Sky Sports? Better start asking around.
At each venue, two rounds will be held,
making it a 24 round series (F1 has 19 this year). There are
also two street races (Durban and San Antonio), as well as
some fabulous circuits such as Laguna Seca in the US and
Eastern Creek in New South Wales, Australia. (I have raced
there and it offers many passing opportunities, as well as
being a great driver’s circuit.)
The A1 Grand Prix series looks like it will provide the
spectacle that the motor sport enthusiasts have been calling
for, and with the strong Asian and African involvement, as
well as the usual Europeans, we will all have a ‘local’
team to barrack for.
Ford to push the
Ethanol engine?
In the middle of all the “save our
planet” broo-ha-ha, complete with opposing ideas on how to
manage the “dwindling” oil stocks, one energy source being
touted is ethanol (also known as ‘alcohol’ in some areas,
though I have it on good authority that the current crop of
auto engines do not run too well on Chang beer).
Ethanol mixtures have been used for many
years, especially in America, and also in some forms of motor
sport. Basically, the difference between “gasohol” and
usual gasoline is the addition of between 10-20 percent
alcohol. Since the alcohol comes from agricultural sources
such as sugarcane, corn and cassava, the idea is that the
energy is one we can produce without using fossil fuels.
Whether this does save fossil fuel depends a lot upon whether
farmer Somchai uses an oil burning tractor, or a chaff burning
ox!
However, there are many countries that are
using gasohol successfully, including Brazil, North America
and Sweden, and Ford Motor Company has been supplying gasohol
compatible E20 engines for these countries. Now there are
mutterings that Ford Thailand could also start producing the
E20 engines here, but there are many factors to be considered
before this would be a reality.
Forgetting government taxation reliefs
(which by the way would determine price structure of the
vehicles, and the viability of the project for Ford Motor
Corp) there are other problems for the gasohol producers, such
as ensuring an adequate supply of corn, and also getting over
a perceived buyer resistance. Popular press is currently
inundated with items about gasohol, including people claiming
that the fuel destroyed their engines, and guarantees from
gasohol producers that the fuel won’t harm today’s engines
at all.
While the confusion rages, I suggest you just sit back and
have another glass of ethanol, and adopt a wait and see
policy!
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week, I asked what was the number
plate of the Rover Jet car? Now should have been really easy!
The answer was Jet 1.
Rover
Jet car
So to this week. There was a tractor, built
in the UK, which shared an engine with two of the popular
sports cars of the day. What were the names of the sports
cars? Now that should have you happily Googling for a while!
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be
the first correct answer to email au [email protected]
Good luck!
