Toyota Outlines Alt-Fuel, Manufacturing Goals in Environmental Plan
By Danny King August 25, 2010Toyota Motor Corp. is looking to boost 2015 global fleetwide fuel efficiency by 25 percent from 2005 levels by broadening sales of hybrid-electric vehicles and introducing battery-electric vehicle (BEV) and plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles (PHEV), as the world's largest automaker outlined its fifth so-called "Environmental Action Plan" earlier today.
Toyota will debut its first PHEV by 2012, with a first-year sales goal of more than 10,000 units, while introducing a BEV specifically for city use that same year, the company said. Toyota, whose Prius is the world's best-selling HEV, looks to boost annual hybrid sales to 1 million units while reaching cumulative sales of 5 million units sometime in the early part of this decade.
The automaker outlined this and more as part of its Environmental Action Plan for the five years starting in 2011. Toyota said earlier this month that it's cumulatively sold more than 1 million hybrid vehicles in Japan and about 2.7 million globally. Toyota sold 80,141 Priuses in the U.S. during the first seven months of the year, up 7 percent from the same period in 2009.
"The plan is based on Toyota Motor Corp.'s environmental principles of contributing to the growth of a sustainable society and Earth through manufacturing that is in harmony with the environment, making cars and offering quality products and services," the company said in today's statement.
Beyond producing and promoting more fuel-efficient cars, Toyota is looking to boost its environmental sensitivity within its manufacturing process as well. The automaker aims to cut 2012 global manufacturing emissions by 29 percent per vehicle produced from 2001 levels while reducing waste in its Japanese production by as much as 45 percent.
The company will also decrease use of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in its vehicles' body paint, increase the percentage of ecological plastics and recycled resin materials in its cars and encourage practices such as recycling and reduced water use.
Photo of Prius plug-in hybrid demonstration car by Toyota
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