Toyota Says No to Diesel Prius

Japanese manufacturer Toyota does not intend to create a diesel hybrid version of the popular Prius, an official of the company revealed, despite that some automaker seem to be tempted to migrate to this kind of hybrids. Executive vice-president Tasatami Takimoto, responsible for Toyota’s R&D center, told autocar.co.uk that it will take "many more years" until Toyota will produce such a system, with its petrol hybrid system advanced enough to compete in such a difficult market.

In case it happens to see Toyota developing a diesel hybrid, we won't do so sooner than 2012, according to the official, hinting that from that year, the Japanese manufacturer could indeed turn its eyes to such a system. Curious why? The development costs won't make sense since it already owns an advanced petrol hybrid.

“Actually, we already make a diesel hybrid truck in Japan but in order to mass-market diesel hybrids we need to make the exhaust emissions much cleaner, and that requires development," he said. “You have to combine this clean emissions technology with the hybrid system cost, so that means that, currently, it’s a very high-cost powertrain for us,” he added. “So for Toyota, it will take many more years.”

Toyota will officially debut the plug-in hybrid version of the Prius in Japan later this year, with several other markets expected to receive the same model during 2010. According to the aforementioned source, the United Kingdom is one of the first European countries to get the plug-in hybrid but official release dates are yet to be publicly unveiled.