Chuck
03-18-2008, 03:19 PM
Until recently, much of the emphasis in cutting automotive air pollution had focused on fully electric vehicles, because California was requiring that 2 percent of the cars sold there beginning in the 1998 model year have zero-emission levels. (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E5DE1F3BF935A15750C0A961958260)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/12_Prius-I_s_for_Auction_in_Denver.jpgAndrew Pollack - New York Times - March 26, 1997
More direct than Who Killed the Electric Car? -- Ed.
The Toyota Motor Corporation said today that it would become the first company to sell a low-polluting hybrid vehicle, with both an electric motor and a gasoline engine, to a mass market.
The company, the largest Japanese auto maker, said it would begin selling a compact hybrid car with a 1.5-liter engine in Japan this year. Executives said they had no immediate plans to sell the vehicles in the United States, though that is a possibility later. ''We are very confident about what this offers,'' said Akihiro Wada, an executive vice president of Toyota, ''but we would like to get reaction and criticism by testing it in the Japanese market first.'
Hybrid vehicles significantly reduce emissions compared with gasoline-powered cars but are far more practical than fully electric cars. They cannot achieve the zero-emission level of the fully electric car, which California regulators have been seeking. But many auto engineers believe that the hybrid approach represents a reasonable compromise... http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E5DE1F3BF935A15750C0A961958260
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/12_Prius-I_s_for_Auction_in_Denver.jpgAndrew Pollack - New York Times - March 26, 1997
More direct than Who Killed the Electric Car? -- Ed.
The Toyota Motor Corporation said today that it would become the first company to sell a low-polluting hybrid vehicle, with both an electric motor and a gasoline engine, to a mass market.
The company, the largest Japanese auto maker, said it would begin selling a compact hybrid car with a 1.5-liter engine in Japan this year. Executives said they had no immediate plans to sell the vehicles in the United States, though that is a possibility later. ''We are very confident about what this offers,'' said Akihiro Wada, an executive vice president of Toyota, ''but we would like to get reaction and criticism by testing it in the Japanese market first.'
Hybrid vehicles significantly reduce emissions compared with gasoline-powered cars but are far more practical than fully electric cars. They cannot achieve the zero-emission level of the fully electric car, which California regulators have been seeking. But many auto engineers believe that the hybrid approach represents a reasonable compromise... http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E5DE1F3BF935A15750C0A961958260