Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) plans to roll out a compact hybrid car called Aqua in January next year. The Nikkei Business Daily claimed that the gasoline-electric car will have the best fuel economy in its class, delivering a mileage under 40 km/liter or 94 miles per gallon.
Aqua will use the same powertrain as the Prius sedan, which delivers 32 km/liter. It will be priced at about ¥1.7 million ($22,000) in Japan, which is ¥300 thousand less than the Prius.
Recently, Toyota signed a memorandum of understanding with Ford Motor Co. (F) on the equal product development collaboration in order to manufacture a gas-electric hybrid engine for pick-up trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs).
The development of electric hybrid engines would help both the companies meet stringent fuel economy and pollution standards in the U.S. and elsewhere in the near future. The U.S. fuel economy standards require vehicles to deliver 56.5 miles per gallon (mpg) by 2025.
Toyota has also partnered with Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) to collaborate on producing electric vehicles based on its small SUV RAV4.
Toyota occupied the No.1 spot in hybrid offerings after introducing Prius in 1997. Since then, the automaker sold more than 3.3 million hybrid vehicles till date. It expects to launch as many as 10 more gasoline-electric models by 2015 and offer a fuel-sipping option across its entire line-up by 2020.
However, Toyota is struggling with waning sales in the U.S., its most important market, due to the production disruptions resulting from the twin disaster in Japan. It has already lost its No.1 position to General Motors (GM) and Ford in terms of sales. In the first seven months of the year, its sales fell 7% in the U.S.
The Zacks #3 Rank (Hold) company posted a profit of ¥1.16 billion ($14.21 million) or 37 yen cents per share for the first quarter of its fiscal year ended March 31, 2012, which plummeted from ¥190.47 billion ($2.33 billion) or ¥60.74 per share a year ago.
The sharp fall in profit was attributable to substantial decline in vehicle sales all over the world, especially North America and Europe due to disruptions in parts and spares supplies caused by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan on March 11.
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