Ford and Toyota will work together on a petrol-electric hybrid engine to power pick-up trucks and sport utility vehicles.
The companies signed a deal to share development costs, saying they want to make the technology more affordable for customers and bring it to market faster.
Both companies now sell hybrid cars, but trucks need a different system with power to tow and haul heavy loads. “Our collaboration with Ford is a move to make hybrid technology more widely available in sport-utility vehicles and in trucks,” says Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota’s executive vice president for research and development.
“Those kinds of models are indispensable to American customers. And providing them with our hybrid technology will help conserve energy and reduce output of greenhouse gas in the United States. That was our thinking in considering the collaboration,” he added.
Hybrid trucks would help carmakers meet stricter government fuel economy and pollution standards in the US and other countries.
In the US, the fleet of new cars and trucks will have to average 5 litres/100km (56.5mpg) by 2025, although trucks will have lower mileage targets.
It would take a year for the companies to figure out who would do what research, says Ford product development chief Derrick Kuzak.
He says it would be at least two or three years after that before a system could be developed. The companies aren’t sure yet what kind of economy it will get.
The system would power some of Ford’s F-Series pick-up trucks, the top-selling vehicle in the US, and it would run the Tundra, Toyota’s full-sized pick-up truck. It also would be used in rear-wheel-drive sport utility vehicles. Ford and Toyota also say they would work together to develop standards for the way electronic devices such as smartphones linked to cars and trucks.
Ford says it was the first time it had worked with Toyota on any project.
“There are no future plans beyond that point,” says Kuzak. He says the companies would save money on developing the system but he did not know how much. It’s important, he says, to share costs to make the system affordable to customers.
Discussions between the two companies began in April. It’s not the first hybrid system for pick-up trucks and SUVs. General Motors, Chrysler and BMW collaborated on a system unveiled several years ago. NZ Herald