Toyota to Boost Hybrid Output

TOKYO, Sept 12, 2005; Reuters reported that Toyota Motor Corp. said this morning it plans to boost annual output of motors for its gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles to meet strong demand, mainly in North America.

Toyota plans to sell 240,000-250,000 hybrid vehicles in 2005, including the popular Prius sedan, which would be nearly double 2004 sales of 130,000 units, a spokeswoman said.

She said the company has not decided by how much it would increase production or on timing and location.

The Nihon Keizai business daily reported on Saturday that Toyota would boost annual output of the motors, the core component of the fuel-sipping vehicles, by 30 percent by starting production at its headquarters plant in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, next year.

That would increase its annual production of the motors to 400,000 units, the paper said, without specifying which models the motors were for.

Toyota's hybrid vehicles have been especially popular in the United States against a background of sharply rising gasoline prices.

The company said last month it would introduce 10 more hybrid vehicles by the early part of the next decade and boost its worldwide sales of the models to 1 million units a year.

One of the models will be a version of its high-volume Camry sedan, which the company plans to produce at an assembly plant in Georgetown, Kentucky starting late next year.

Toyota had initially set a goal of selling 300,000 hybrid vehicles annually by this year or next, and had said it aimed to boost that to 1 million units as soon as possible.