Hybrid vehicles: Must US automakers compete?

Can US automakers compete?

So, Toyota is going to sell 1 million hybrid cars per year within the next few years, but by 2015 at the latest. Obviously, 1 million units of any vehicle per year is a pretty big sale’s number – a number that has to catch the attention of any major automaker.

Will the Big 3 respond to that big hybrid number?

While GM has supposedly leapfrogged Toyota with the Chevy Volt, almost every single forecast available claims that hybrid sales will far outpace plug-in sales through at least 2030. Can any automaker afford to avoid this space?

In the last year or so, Ford has sounded game to challenge Toyota. Of course, we’ve heard such hybrid bullishness from Ford in the past. Fortunately, today’s Ford is a much different company.

Can US automakers watch Toyota sell 1 million hybrids per year, with plans to scale much higher, without a serious hybrid challenge? Or, are the experts wrong and hybrids are already a dead technology?

Hybridcarblog