Toyota not so green-friendly

Yeah, but at least they've got hybrids in their vehicle line-up, which is more than can be said for Daimler-Chrysler and GM (Silverado is not a real hybrid!).

Even without the hybrids in Toyota's fleet, I'd be willing to bet that their average fuel economy still beats everyone else.

First of all no car company whose entire existance (capital expenses, intellectual property, organization, corporate power structure, etc) is based around the internal combustion engine and the transmission wants anything to do with anything with electric propulsion. This is because, with new NiMH and Lithium batteries, both driving performance (torque, hp, and acceleration), emissions, and economy (mpg) clearly are improved as one adds electric drive and remove internal combustion drive.

Toyota, however, after being pressured by the state of California to build the RAV4EV tried to destroy all evidence of their existance. There are still a few hundred on the road in California and a few other places and they were convinced by some activists to quit crushing them as they came off lease and, if still road-worthy re-lease them or else make the parts available.

The hybrids, on the other hand weren't quite as threatening to the status quo (they have both an internal combustion engine and a transmission) as the pure EV so Toyota 'felt the water' by selling a few. Now that the genie is out of the bottle and people are buying them faster than any other car on the market, they are reluctantly having to change their approach.

I'm not sure how anyone can say "when even more americans start buying them" when Americans have bought *EVERY SINGLE* Prius that was built for at least four years now.

Hopefully, the business minded people at Toyota will finally come around and push the rest of
Toyota to start offering a hybrid option to power ALL of their vehicles (not everyone needs a dull, slow hatchback sedan). Ideally, they will also continue to exploit the electric capability as they did with the gen2 Prius that had better performance, better ecology, AND better economy the the original Prius.

I would venture that one financial rationale around Toyota's venture into hybrids is their fleet CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) numbers are enhanced by the sale of high-mileage vehicles, such that they can make and sell a greater number of high-profit vehicles, such as SUV's (in the US).

They don't have to make that big of a profit from hybrids directly. The profit is made indirectly, as they can expand their SUV sales without violating the Federal CAFE rules.

With Toyota's legendary quality, they can sell virtually every SUV they're permitted to sell. Which is limited only by CAFE rules. Hybrids are a way to stretch the CAFE rules, while enhancing their corporate image as green-friendly.