bloomberg.com:
June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. may offer to supply a version of its Prius hybrid car to General Motors Corp. during a meeting between the companies' chief executives, two people familiar with the plan said.
The 3rd Generation Toyota Prius Hybrid
Toyota Prius - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Environmentalist Etiquette: 4 Tips for How Not to be a Buzzkill at Your Next Cocktail Party
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People now are getting paid the SAME WAGES as they did in 2000. But are prices at 2000
levels? H3LL NO. So they go into debt, adding more layers tothe USA debt ponzi scheme.
good finance articles: http://heavysidetrade.blogspot.com/
Great We bail them out so that thy can rebrand. How does that save manufacturing jobs. Probable done so the goverment can buy prei and claim they are American. But we are stupid.
Don't do it! Make them pull out the plans from the 70's, i.e. 'Who Killed the Electric Car'. They had it, they destroyed it, they can resurrect it.
Oh, yeah, take on this loser, GM!
Why buy into a technology that will be obsolete in less than a decade? EREV and BEV are the future.
Toyota offers GM the Prius, GM gets a priapism.
I wonder if in exchange GM is supposed to give Toyota access to its EV technology so that they can develop it further and make it marketable. I wouldn't doubt it knowing how short-sighted GM management has always been.
Toyota may offer Prius hybrid to GM.........'cause they're coming out with the pure ev's.
This Prius arrangement seems to be a decision that was made behind the government scenes. The federal government is likely to establish a policy whereby "x" number of government leased vehicles will be hybrids, and Toyota was asked to come in via GM.
http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com
This story surfaced about a month ago (in Bloomberg, no less), and was roundly denounced by both GM and Toyota.
Toyota insists on their Synergy drive / parallel hybrid approach, and GM is taking a series hybrid approach with their Voltec platform. It's been demonstrated that the Prius doesn't easily convert into a PHEV (ie, there's no useful increase in MPG), whereas the Volt is designed from the start to be a PHEV (actually, a range-extended electric vehicle).
Voltec is a simpler design that can more readily adapt to changes in technology, making it a better long-term design.
While the source (Andrew Farah, Chief Engineer on the Volt) is a tad biased, he's already stated publicly that "Our chassis is much more sporty than either of the other vehicles", referring to the Prius and Insight-- and he (and GM) have a vested interest in making a PHEV that doesn't ask the user to make sacrifices in the name of being green. As a result, I think the Volt's going to be measurably better in nearly every metric except cost-- and that's comparing the first generation Volt to the third generation Prius. By the time second and third generation Volts hit the road (Gen II is in development already), "Voltec" should be just another powertrain option for a large percentage of GM vehicles.
I don't know why GM would be interested-- they want to leapfrog Toyota, not play catch-up.
Where do they get the electricity?
The prius/insight gets electricity by burning gasoline, and by regenerative braking.
The Volt gets electricity from the plug, from regenerative braking and from gasoline.
Where the plug gets electricity from, is another discussion which isn't quite as important as how much CO2 is produced by the ships bringing the Prius and/or Insight across the Pacific ocean.
The more I read about GM the more I think it just needs to go away. Toyota maybe should buy GM and let the top of GM go. Mr. Clark, probably has a large ego, President of GM's North American operation. What a joke. He probably pulls down a huge sum of money and doesn't do a honest days work for the pay. Henderson can only meet Toyoda in August when his company is falling apart? What a joke as well. Hopefully, the partial union ownership will make the business people pay attention to running a company whereby many folks rely on for support of family and self. I just don't know what to think. Who in their right mind would buy a car that you plug in and it goes for 200 hundred miles and may not be charged in an emergency? Man will the lawyers have a time with that one especially if you link the uncharged car with universal health care! Our engineering is second to none and we don't have a hybrid car system to offer the general public? Why is this so? There is $25 Billion available to develop such a system and we don't or haven't used it. This is unbelievable. What is going on? GM, Ford, Chrysler, Automotive Engineering Society and all the others involved with this industry?
I shudder to think what Toyota will do to the Chevrolet Corvette.
in b4 the Toyota apologists ramble about fuel economy.
As much as I support American workers, I can't support American automakers as long as they give so much off the top to their useless CEOs and top execs. A rational relationship between worker compensation and executive compensation/perks could have been part of collective bargaining, but wasn't (although this would have ensured that when workers took a hit, the hot shots who don't actually produce anything other than golf scores did too). I hope Toyota, which compensates its execs on a more reasonable scale, retains its own version of the Prius.
They don't GIVE them anything. They pay them. It's voluntary. Nobody is forced at gunpoint.
the photo shows a HONDA insight
Now that is a miserable car.
So the Matrix and Vibe are essentially identical cars built in the same facility with the same people yet one outsells the other. GM has trouble selling cars that are given to them.
I do hope that Toyota finds a way to keep NUMMI open. California needs the help.
I bought a Matrix over a Vibe for many reasons. The biggest reason was that I'd rather get my car serviced at Toyota.
I guess I should buy one before GM ruins it.
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First Posted: 06-29-09 05:49 PM | Updated: 07-30-09 05:12 AM