More Proof the Tundra Hybrid is Coming

Recently, we wrote about the fact that Toyota will be releasing a hybrid version of the Tundra and the Sequoia in 2009 as a 2010 model. Amazingly, in spite of all of our evidence, many people still don’t believe.

Check out these comments by Jim Press, president of Toyota USA “everything will be a hybrid…you don’t buy a car for image any longer that’s a big gas guzzler.” (Source Chicago Tribune) Clearly, these comments are directed at the belief that many people purchase large trucks and SUVs for the image they connote, as well as their utility. Perhaps because image is a concern for the buyers that Toyota is referencing, does that mean that a Lexus hybrid SUV will be available too?

Of course it does. Toyota is racing to bring these hybrids to market because it will give them a competitive advantage for years to come. When the Prius debuted, it was slow, kind of ugly, and a little pricey. Amazingly, it was estimated that Toyota was losing anywhere from $2k – $5k on each Prius sold because the costs of the technology were higher than the cost of the vehicle. At the time, many executives at other automakers (GM comes to mind) were talking about how they weren’t going to bring a new technology to market until it was profitable (consider the EV-1, GM’s electric car that died a miserable death).

Yet look at today — because Toyota made the leap to develop and sell a hybrid FIRST, they own the market. Why not do the same thing with trucks and SUV’s? Toyota is going to sell a hybrid Tundra soon — count on it.