Was the battery and hybrid system of the Prius government funded? Rumours have been swirling over this rather contentious issue since Jim Press (ex-Toyota employee, and now vice chairman and president of Chrysler LLC) dropped a bombshell when talking with BusinessWeek recently.
“The Japanese government paid for 100 percent of the development of the battery and hybrid system that went into the Toyota Prius,” said Jim Press
Assuming for a moment that this is true, it goes a long way to explaining how Toyota have been able to produce the Prius without losing a King’s ransom while GM struggle to find a way to get their Volt to market, at a price that will make a profit and be deemed good value by the consumer.
For many years now, GM have expressed their concerns at the viability of the petrol-electric hybrid from a cost per unit point of view, while Toyota in the meantime has taken the world by storm with their hybrid Prius.
Looked at from a different perspective, it is interesting how a petrol-electric drive system conceived in North America has gone on to almost define a Japanese car company. While the US manufacturers were crushing plug-in electric cars, Toyota were busy perfecting the hybrid.
Toyota have of course denied that they received any funding for the development of the Prius.
“I can say 100 percent that Toyota received absolutely no support — no money, no grants — from the Japanese government for the development of the Prius,” said Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco.
It’s an interesting claim, but at the end of the day does it really matter what happened? If the Japanese government had the foresight to support Toyota in the development of a car that would ensure their competitiveness then kudos to them. With a million hybrid sales under their belt and the plan to sell a million hybrids a year, it is all smiles over at Toyota HQ.
Maybe there is a lesson here for other governments? You know, the ones who prefer spending tax-payer dollars subsidizing ailing manufacturers who build cars that are rapidly becoming irrelevant?
[Source: BusinessWeek]
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Mind you, if Toyota did get funding, what went wrong! The prius isn’t that great a car and clearly if funding was part of the whole thing, then the Prius would’ve probably sold at a lower retail price/possibly subsidised.
But it’s true that the Australian government should start thinking about how to not only support a relevant automotive industry, but to make Australian carmakers the most advanced and forward-looking, environmentally friendly in the world. Just look at the Swiss Solartaxi, which has travelled around the world with huge publicity around the world, yet in Australia, the country that cries and bitches the most about fuel prices, ignored it’s visit to Australian cities. Not only does government need to make the first responsible steps, but also the public have to change their attitude and have a reality check.
Well said Adam. As much as I love a V8, and think we produce some of the better large sedans in the world, this type of vehicle is not the way forward, a fact that our local industry is already beginning to learn…the hard way.
The Australian government already provided handouts to Ford to develop a hybrid with an I6. WHAT A WASTE OF TAXPAYERS DOLLARS. Now the I6 is being scrapped, all that R&D for nothing.