Hybrids a long bridge to future, says Toyota chairman
They have more to teach carmakers, says Takeshi Uchiyamada, challenging them to sell five million of the vehicles in the US by 2016
Toyota chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada challenged carmakers on Monday to step up sales of hybrids in the United States, calling them “a long bridge” to future vehicles.
“Today I wish to call on the industry to sell five million hybrids in the US by the end of 2016,” Uchiyamada, who pioneered the Prius, said in remarks before the Economic Club of Washington.
Uchiyamada forecast that hybrid vehicles would play a larger role than understood at the moment in the development of automotive propulsion systems.
“It’s only when we put ourselves under the same kind of intense pressure we faced in developing the Prius that we can achieve great goals,” he said. “That’s what it takes. I want our industry to achieve this goal.”
Uchiyamada was chief engineer of the Toyota team that developed the Prius, the world’s first mass-produced petrol-electric hybrid car, launched in 1997.
He became chairman of the Japanese carmaker in June.