Despite the wild success of Toyota's Prius, profit margins are so tight that the car probably wouldn’t have seen the light of day were it not for die-hard promoters within the company. But last week Masatami Takimoto, executive vice president in charge of powertrain development, said cost-cutting efforts on the system's motor, battery and inverter would soon bring profit margins of the car in line with gasoline-powered engines. The timing was calculated. Toyota will probably move its 1 millionth Prius sometime this month. Takimoto said that by 2020, he expects hybrid engines to account for 100 percent of the drivetrains Toyota uses.
Source: Reuters
