Q&A: Toyota and Trends in the Car Market
With Toyota poised to overtake General Motors as the world's biggest carmaker, Jim Press, president of Toyota's North American division, has become one of the most important executives in the industry. He spoke with U.S. News at the Detroit auto show about Toyota's ascendancy, alternative fuels, and trends in the car market.
I'm sure everybody is asking you when you're going to overtake GM. If that happens, does it change anything for Toyota? Do you have to rethink your image?
That's not about what we've done. That's more about what GM does or doesn't do. The bulk of our image is our products. The things we focus on are the elements of success, not the end result. The thing we most focus on is customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Everybody here is talking about alternatives to gasoline engines. Hybrids, diesel, ethanol, hydrogen fuel cells. What do you think will be the prevailing solutions in 10 or 15 years?
The cost of fuel is going to go up, global warming and environmentalism, all of it will combine to make cars more efficient. Right now, a hybrid system is the most elegant solution using today's infrastructure and technology. In the future, I think the common component will be a hybrid. I think everything will be a hybrid. Plug-ins for the inner city, ethanol hybrids, diesels in trucks.
Battery technology has to improve. We need lower cost, smaller batteries; they need to recharge faster and deplete slower. Slower depletion means longer life. So you want a battery that charges [quickly] and depletes slowly. There's a lot of research going on into nickel metal hydride batteries, which we use today, and lithium ion batteries, which we'll use in the future. Another advantage of hybrids is they're great in sports cars. They provide more fun.
It's like craps. You've got to cover a couple of bets, not just one.
So where is Toyota placing its bets?
We're investigating plug-ins. One of the advantages is the power grid is mostly unused at night. An ethanol hybrid engine is a good bet. And fuel cells are out there. [Katsuaki] Watanabe [the president of Toyota] has a vision: a car that drives across the country on one tank of gas and cleans the air on the way.
When do you think hydrogen fuel cells will actually start to become available?
In the next 10, 15, or 20 years. But this stuff is real. You should see our factories. My son works for a chip company. They do integrated circuits. And our new plants look more like one of those than like the old auto factory, with machines banging everywhere.
Some of your competitors, especially the European automakers, are pushing diesels. You didn't mention that.
Well, diesels might be a good bet, too. But when gas hits $3 a gallon, people want hybrids.
Do you consider yourself an environmentalist?
Do I consider myself an environmentalist ... yes, I do.
What do you do in your personal life to live as an environmentalist?
I walk to work. I ride a bike. I try to have a minimal impact on the Earth and the environment. Less carbon use. Recycling. I'm most comfortable in a rural environment where there's no negative impact on the environment.
Have you seen the Al Gore movie?
Yes, I have.
So are you somebody who worries about the worst-case scenarios of global warming? Or do you think that when the problems get serious enough we'll find technological solutions?
I do worry, and we turn that into energy for our company to be part of the solution, not pollution.
Do you see anything happening in Asia that might come this way and be a new trend, like hybrids did?
Safety. That's a big area of potential breakthroughs. We're testing systems in Japan, things like smart highways, where there are transponders on cars and they can communicate with each other and with traffic lights. So they can slow down if there's a red light up ahead, and they know where other cars are so they can avoid them.
Honda has developed some interesting pedestrian-protection technology. Is Toyota doing much research like that?
We are. One of the interesting things I've noticed ... in Asia, there's a societal concern: I don't want to hurt you. In America, it's "I want to protect myself." That's leading us to pioneer some interesting new technologies.