The world’s best-selling hybrid is currently built in Japan and China, but with demand for the efficient cars in the U.S. remaining high, Toyota is reportedly considering adding Prius production to its joint-venture facility operated with General Motors.
...Adding Prius production to the plant would require shipping the parts it can’t source in the U.S. - like battery assemblies from its Japanese plants - and assembling them stateside, reports the AFP.
Like the company’s recent announcement of two new hybrid battery plants in Japan, the addition of more Prius production capacity is aimed at helping the company reach its goal of selling over a million hybrids a year post-2010.
As would-be rivals Nissan and Volkswagen begin their first tentative steps into the hybrid and electric arenas, veteran Toyota has announced it is taking the first steps toward building a third hybrid battery plant. The second plant was announced last week.
Toyota’s stated goal of increasing hybrid production to over 1 million vehicles per year in the near future means the company must develop more battery capacity... Because the timeline for reaching the million-hybrid mark is a short one, Toyota expects to have the new plant online by 2010...
The day they announce that is the day I buy a JDM Prius before the switch over.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. But what if it was assembled at TMMC Cambridge or Woodstock? Although assembling up here may be more expensive than NUMMI (transporting the imported components across the continent).
...If true, the news is noteworthy, for two reasons. The first reason is that it will be the first time the Prius will be produced in the U.S. The Prius is currently manufactured only in Japan and China.
The second reason is that it really begs the question of whether General Motors, with Toyota’s blessing, would be able to leverage the Prius production in the plant to make their own version of the Prius. If so, would General Motors even be interested in producing such a vehicle, considering the plug-in hybrid Volt is on the way and General Motors already has a two-mode hybrid engine in production? Of course, with SUV and pickup sales plummeting, GM may decide that it might not be a bad idea to have another hybrid car for GM shoppers to buy. Lots of ifs and maybes in that particular scenario. But, if Toyota does want GM to make their own version of the Prius (amortize those costs, boys), and GM wants to do that, it’s not as if that decision is laden with risk on GM’s part. Toyota has sold over a million units of the Prius since it was introduced in 1997, so it has been established that consumers like the car...
My thought is why GM would NOT want their own version of the Prius? With development costs of the Prius and the Hybrid Synergy Drive already paid for, the GM Prius would likely be cheaper than the new Two-Mode Hybrid vehicles (the Saturn VUE, Tahoe/Yukon/etc.), not to mention cheaper than the Volt. It may even be cheaper than their mild-hybrid Belt-Alternator-Starter hybrid vehicles (Malibu and Aura and VUE). And with and the technology already proven, sales of the GM Prius would likely be higher than their current hybrid vehicles.
If this happened, and happened successfully, I would not even be surprised if GM stopped producing its own hybrid systems. After all, it has not been unknown for GM to kill good product in the past... (And why keep the high cost of maintaining a number of different types of hybrid systems?)
Would that dilute the value of the Prius, though, for those loyal fans of the Prius and the HSD? Is it the same as Toyota licencing their technology to Nissan (and Ford)?
One question comes along, if those dreams about GM producing a prius become true, probably would use the old version of HSD, instead of the new generation HSD coming for the 2010 prius.....right?
If so, what is the people gonna buy....old tech or new tech? toyota or GM?
If the answer is obvious, then whats the purpose?
One question comes along, if those dreams about GM producing a prius become true, probably would use the old version of HSD, instead of the new generation HSD coming for the 2010 prius.....right?
If so, what is the people gonna buy....old tech or new tech? toyota or GM?
If the answer is obvious, then whats the purpose?
My thoughts on this:
GM will get its own version of the Prius, only ifToyota decides to assemble the Prius at NUMMI, the assembly plant it shares with GM.
If GM gets its own version of the Prius, it will be the same version that Toyota assembles at NUMMI. It would not be economical for Toyota to assemble two versions, an older-technology "Prius Classic" and a current-technology "New Prius".
If GM sells its own version, would GM then decide to cancel its current BAS and 2-Mode hybrid systems? If GM gets its own version (just as GM gets its own version of the Matrix, selling as the Vibe), I think that GM could make a profit on it, since it would be selling a good, reliable car with proven technology, without having to spend much development money on it (other than paying licencing fees to Toyota for the HSD, obviously). That sounds like an accountant's dream come true -- sell a product without having to spend development money on it! If GM makes a profit, why continue developing expensive technology? The BAS is not as fuel efficient as the HSD, and the 2-Mode is expensive, and not selling well right now. And, GM is known as an accountant-run company, a company that is not likely to continue investing in technology if it cannot make money on it in the near-term (case in point: the EV1 electric car). If GM sells its own version of the Prius, I would not be surprised to see the BAS gone, the 2-Mode gone, even its Plug-in Hybrids gone. I say this not because I hate GM, or because I want to see GM fail, I say it because I do not have faith in GM.
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