Watanabe: Each Toyota model will have a hybrid option

During his New Year's Speech, Toyota's CEO Katsuaki Watanabe announced some highlights about the future plans of his company. The most spectacular is the one we used as a headline: Each Toyota model will have a hybrid powertrain available so that Toyota can reach the goal of selling a million hybrids per year. Watanabe stated that since 1997, Toyota has saved 5 million CO₂ tons from the atmosphere thanks to the marque's 1.25 million hybrids already on the road.

While other automakers are making their bets on technologies such as diesels, Mr. Watanabe believes that hybrids are the way to go, and it's a key factor for the company's strategy to reduce its environmental impact. He said that not only is Toyota producing cleaner cars, but this behavior is also being used during the research and development phases, the manufacturing process and the social responsibility of the company.

Toyota's CEO also announced that they're working in a plug-in hybrid (old news) but he didn't mention when it would be available on the showrooms. He also announced that they're researching lithium-ion batteries, which would replace current nickel-based units, because of their higher performance.

The speech also mentioned that Toyota will respond to the automobile market expansion that countries such as China, India, Brazil or Russia are living through, as well as new environmental legislation that could arrive there and elsewhere.