REPORT: GM execs to meet with Toyota regarding hybrid sharing
2010 Toyota Prius – Click above for high-res image gallery
Rumors that General Motors may get access to Toyota's proprietary hybrid technology just won't go away. Today, Bloomberg cites two unnamed sources in reports that Toyota President Akio Toyoda and GM chief Fritz Henderson will meet this August in Michigan to discuss the possibility of a GM-badged version of the Toyota Prius hybrid hatchback.
For the record, both General Motors and Toyota have repeatedly denied that any such talks have taken place and have said it's unlikely that they ever will in the future. Many of these rumors indicate that the two automakers are considering building the Prius together at the New United Motor Manufacturing Incorporated (NUMMI) joint venture in California, but GM has today announced that its involvement in NUMMI is over.
It remains a possibility that Toyota will fully take over the reigns at NUMMI to finally build the Prius in America, but even if that's the case, it's extremely unlikely that General Motors will have anything to do with the project in light of its own massive undertaking of readying the Chevy Volt for the market in 2011.
Gallery: Review: 2010 Toyota Prius
Photos copyright ©2009 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.
[Source: Bloomberg]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
slk23 6:28PM (6/29/2009)
"It remains a possibility that Toyota will fully take over the reigns at NUMMI to finally build the Prius in America"
There are so many Priuses (Prii) sold in the San Francisco Bay Area that building them here would make a lot of sense! Eliminating the boat ride from Japan would mean lower costs and less environmental impacts. Or would they have to ship the components over from Japan, basically negating any environmental benefits?
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Frankbank 8:55PM (6/29/2009)
The rumor won't "go away" for two reasons:
1)Toyota likes to broadcast, without attribution, the idea that they are generous and trying to help out poor old GM. Toyota is concerned about loosing the Prius "mojo" to what will be considered by many to be a superior "greener" car in the Volt, and would like to hold on to green imagery that somehow all car makers are following Toyota, not ahead of them.
This is not the first time, more like the fifth time Toyota has suggested that they might help out GM with hybrid sharing, even when there was not truth to it. The truth is, Ford screwed over Ford on a hybrid sharing deal like this. The media still recounts the story that Fords hybrid know how all comes from Toyota. Most automakers consider Toyota to be dishonorable as a result of their dishonest use of innuendo to the press from unnamed sources.
2)Gullible media that give more ink to rumors from unnamed sources than facts. The fact that that GM execs said that they have not discussed hybrids in recent times carries no weight with most media. Writers and bloggers are generally lazy sensationalist types and speculation and allowing themselves to be used by Toyota is easy work compared to actual reporting.
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Curt 11:54PM (6/29/2009)
The state of California and local cities and counties also buy a bunch of Honda and Toyota hybrids.
The state would offer tax incentives if Toyota built the Prius in the NUMMI plant.
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