Toyota President Calls For Greater Auto Industry Technical Cooperation

Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) President, Fujio Cho, called for greater cooperation in developing efficient, clean vehicles to assure the auto industry's future prosperity, as the world's motorists increase in number and natural resources become more limited.

"We can no longer afford to ignore the signs of global warming and the fact that the consumption of gasoline and other fossil fuels is on the rise," he said. "Environmentally friendly cars will soon cease to be an option ... they will become a necessity."

Noting Toyota's clean technology alliances with General Motors and Volkswagen, Cho called for automakers to take the lead in finding cleaner, more efficient and more marketable environmentally sound vehicles for the future. "To reach our goals as an industry, we must continue to cooperate in the laboratory -- and compete in the showroom," he said.

Cho cited the commercially successful Prius gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle and other advanced technologies as providing a head start toward development of a fuel cell hybrid vehicle as the ultimate eco-car. "It has always been Toyota's desire to provide realistic solutions that demonstrate our commitment to a cleaner environment," he said.

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