Toyota To Cut Hybrid Car Costs To Improve Profitability

According to Reuters, Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) expects to cut costs for hybrid cars enough to be able to make as much money on them as it does on conventional gasoline cars by around 2010, a top executive said on Thursday.

Masatami Takimoto, executive vice president in charge of powertrain development, said cost-cutting efforts on the system's motor, battery and inverter were bearing fruit, and the cost structure would improve drastically by the time Toyota reaches its sales goal of one million hybrids annually in 2010 or soon after.

Industry watchers expect the current Prius to be remodeled late next year or in early 2009, using a lithium-ion battery for the first time. Takimoto declined to confirm the speculation, but added that Toyota's lithium-ion battery, under development with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. was technically ready to be mounted on hybrid cars "any time."