Japanese carmaker
Toyota Motor Corp revealed its plans for 2012, which focus not only on remaining the leader of the green-car market, but also enforcing that position by launching 11 new models of hybrid vehicles and a Prius with rechargeable batteries.
The price of the new Prius is expected to be $36,000.
With Prius and 13 other hybrid cars in its current portfolio, Toyota has built itself a reputation of the next-generation carmaker.
As environment and fuel saving rules tighten, carmakers race to uncover new technologies, such as General Motors Co’s Volt, which, with the help of a gasoline engine, has the capability to produce electricity onboard.
One of the new Toyota releases will be a compact car with an expected fuel efficiency topping 40 kilometers per liter, the highest for models in its class.
The company also announced that it aims to sell more than 50,000 rechargeable Prius annually.
The reaction of the stock markets to Toyota’s announcement was rather dull, prompting an increase in share price of only 1.4 percent in Tokyo, 0.8 percent lower than overall market growth.
According to market experts, Toyota’s announcement is nothing special, since the company had been market leader for years. Furthermore, they say, competitors are rolling out electric cars, to which hybrids may appear somewhat less worthy of attention, with GM’s Chevrolet Volt and Nissan’s Leaf catching a lot of attention.
However, the new Prius model, a plug-in car, will be ready for sale in the first half of 2012 in US, Europe and Japan.
Having 23 billion dollars available, Toyota is one of the few car producers that can afford to spend on research and development activities in a broad area of technologies.
The company also announced its plans to introduce electric cars on the Chinese market, the biggest vehicle market in the world.
