Toyota’s Bringing Battery Production State-side
Toyota says it will eventually manufacture it's hybrid batteries in North America
The Toyota prius's main stumbling block as a profitable automobile, is the cost of the battery packs used to give it such great fuel economy. To counter-act this, Toyota Plans to eventually bring production of the hybrid battery packs into north america.
Toyota plans to bring the profit margin of the Prius closer to that of a non-hybrid Toyota Corolla sedan. This is just one of the cost cutting measures they plan to put into place to acheive this.
On the other hand, Chevrolet and it's Chevy Volt electric car, states that they plan on losing money initially with each hybrid vehicle they sell, because of the high cost of the battery packs. Toyota is smart enough to combat this by bringing the production into North America where the majority of the cars are being sold.
On a final note, Toyota has also announced that it will be unveiling a dedicated hybrid vehicle for it's upscale Lexus brand at the Detroit Auto Show in January.