While Toyota aims to roll out plug-in hybrids in 2010.
Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe, in comments at the North American International Auto Show, said the firm expected to have several hundred of the rechargeable vehicles operating in the fleets of large companies or government agencies in less than two years. In addition, the maker of the Prius hybrid has begun preparing to build a lithium battery factory to power plug-in or electric-only vehicles, he said.
"We welcome competition because that is how new technology is developed for consumers," Watanabe said, according to Reuters. "But we don't want to lose."
Detroit-based GM has been increasingly vague about the debut of the Volt, which initially had a 2009 release date. The company now puts the debut at late 2010, but last week GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner called the Volt's battery technology a "stretch."
GM introduced the Volt concept car at last year's auto show here amid bold promises that it would change the industry.
On Sunday, at the start of this year's show, the automaker took center stage to unveil two concept cars. Neither came with lithium-ion batteries, however.
Instead, GM showcased the alternative-fuel versions of the Hummer HX and the Saab 9-4X. The old- fashioned alternative is one with which GM has long experience. In fact, GM already produces more ethanol-capable vehicles than any other automaker.
When Wagoner introduced the fantasy Hummer and Saab, he vowed that the company would create ethanol versions of all GM vehicles. And he announced that GM had made an investment in Coskata, an Illinois-based start-up whose claim to fame is that it can make ethanol on the cheap, for less than $2 a gallon at the pump.
Why the switch in focus from big-buzz batteries to ho-hum ethanol?
It's the Volt glitch, something even GM has begun to acknowledge exists.
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