Toyota stresses its green credentials with new Hybrid X concept

In a Geneva show with a distinctly green theme, Toyota made moves to stamp its environmental product leadership on the European auto industry, launching a new hybrid concept model, the Hybrid X.

Designed by Toyota’s European Design centre ED2, the futuristic Hybrid X gives a glimpse of the future for Toyota’s hybrid synergy drive system, according to Toyota Motor Europe’s executive vice-president, Thierry Dombreval.

“Over the next few years, we plan to double our global hybrid vehicle offering, anticipating annual sales of over a million hybrid vehicles by early in the next decade,” Dombreval said. Including Prius, Toyota and Lexus have 11 hybrid models on offer, and has sold 900,000 hybrids worldwide. Around 650,000 of these have been Prius models, and European Prius sales now top 50,000.

The Hybrid X “proposes a new design language”, said Dombreval, with large glass areas and controllable ambience within the car – the driver can adjust “the four senses of sight, sound, touch and smell”, Dombreval said.

Toyota also showed the FT-HS hybrid sports car shown at Detroit in January, which has a hybrid system capable of 400bhp and a 0-60mph time of around 4 seconds. “Hybrd X and FT-HS represent two poles of the hybrid spectrum, which define the frontiers for an array of hybrids in the future,” Dombreval added.

Toyota plans to sell 1.2 million cars in Europe this year, bolstered by strong sales of small cars. Yaris and Aygo combined will account for 370,000 units in 2007, Dombreval said.