DETROIT - Hours after General Motors used the Detroit Auto Show to announce a partnership to produce ethanol from non-food sources, rival Toyota did the same, saying it is doing in-house research to derive ethanol from wood.
President Katsuaki Watnabe also said Toyota would have a test fleet of hundreds plug-in hybrids on the road in 2010, using lithium-ion battery technology. That's the same year GM plans to begin building a production plug-in, the Chevrolet Volt, that can travel 40 miles on lithium-ion power.
Toyota and GM are battling for global auto sales leadership--a race that will be determined Jan. 23 when GM reports results for 2007--and Sunday's announcements show they also are competing head-to-head for leadership in technology and image as makers of green vehicles.
To that end, Watanabe said Toyota, the leader in hybrid sales, will introduce two new ones--a Toyota and a Lexus--at next year's Detroit show and will offer a "clean" diesel engine, one that uses low-sulfur fuel, on its full-size Sequoia and Tundra "soon." He did not elaborate and was not available for questions after his speech at the show.
With new U.S. fuel-economy standards requiring an automaker's fleet to average 35 m.p.g. by 2020--up from 27.5 m.p.g. for cars now and 22.4 for trucks--Watanabe said he has challenged Toyota's engineers to meet that standard well before the deadline, again without giving details. "We will not wait until the deadline to comply," he insisted.
As its own step toward those standards, GM announced a partnership with Warrenville-based Coskata Inc. Sunday to develop ethanol from wood, trash, tires, plastic and other materials. Coskata expects to be producing the ethanol by 2011.
GM is ahead of Toyota in the production of vehicles that run on E85, the blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, having built more than 2 million of them. Toyota will offer its first E85 vehicles--V-8 powered trucks--in 2009.
Toyota has that dominance over GM in hybrids, having sold 1.25 million worldwide while GM has just begun to produce them in volume.
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