Toshiba to make drive motors for Ford hybrids in U.S.

[Falc'man]

UPDATE 1-Toshiba to supply drive motors for Ford hybrids
Tue Jun 22, 2010 11:10pm EDT

* Toshiba plans to invest $44 mln to set up new line

* First time company has made units outside Japan

* Toshiba shares down 1.2 pct vs Nikkei's 1.7 pct fall (Adds details, share price)

DETROIT/TOKYO, June 22 (Reuters) - Japanese electronics conglomerate Toshiba Corp (6502.T) said on Tuesday it will supply drive motors for Ford Motor Co (F.N) hybrid vehicles, aiming to cash in on surging demand for green cars.

Toshiba, which also produces lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, said it would start making the automotive propulsion units in the United States to meet growing demand.

It will be the first time the company has manufactured the parts outside Japan.

By expanding globally, Toshiba hopes to grab a slice of growing demand for hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. Toshiba said it expects the drive motor market to jump 20-fold to 1 trillion yen ($11 billion) by the 2020 financial year.

It plans to invest about 4 billion yen ($44 million) to set up a new production line at an existing facility in Houston and start production in 2012 with a monthly capacity of 100,000 units, a company spokesman said.

Toshiba shares fell 1.2 percent to 483 yen by midday in Tokyo on Wednesday, outperforming a 1.7 percent slide in the benchmark Nikkei average .N225. ($1=90.51 Yen) (Reporting by James B. Kelleher in Detroit and Sachi Izumi in Tokyo, editing by Leslie Gevirtz and Michael Watson)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTOE65M01W20100623

[JimNiki]

Toshiba said it expects the drive motor market to jump 20-fold to 1 trillion yen ($11 billion) by the 2020

I really thought this hybrid thing was just a stop gap measure temporarily until the electric vehicle or fuel cell or something got going...

Toyota obviously believes that hybrid technology is here to stay for a while.
Toyota don't have an all electric car do they? Do they know something that we don't. Like the fact that battery power will not progress enough to propel an all electric vehicle 400-600km on a "tank" of juice.

I think Toyota will stretch out this stop gap technology for the next 10-15 years and make a killing off it. Are they really interested in reducing the overall co2 footprint when you take in to account all that goes into mining the lithium, creating the batteries, etc. Probably not... The world doesn't run on facts or truth, it runs on the marketable perception of facts and truth.

That's why there's so many misguided "good" people buying Priuses thinking that they are saving the planet when in fact they are doing more harm.

[aussie muscle]

i only hope toshiba make better motors than they do laptops!

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by aussie muscle

i only hope toshiba make better motors than they do laptops!

They're actually considered the best laptop company.

[chevypower]

Originally Posted by vztrt

They're actually considered the best laptop company.

by who?


Message sent from my Macbook Pro

[flappist]

Originally Posted by chevypower

by who?


Message sent from my Macbook Pro

Without doubt the classic quote of the thread.......

[flappist]

You do all realise that now Toshiba have decide to make batteries that work well, follow a standard and could be used anywhere in the world for any purpose Sony will release a battery that does not conform with any standard, will require different versions for different countries, will not work in any vehicle used for "adult purposes" but will dominate the market by including one in a childrens toy.

Sony will then use "market pressure" to force car makers to only use their battery rather than anything else.

The nett result being that the price of the batteries will go up but the "free" childrens toy will ensure that no one cares.......

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by chevypower

by who?


Message sent from my Macbook Pro

Just from comparissons. Dont really hear bad things. But thats a bit hard when the ones that dominate have laptops that catch on fire, are unrealible...but least they cheap and not overhyped.

But things may have changed.

[JimNiki]

Toshiba did have the reputation for making great notebooks early on.
Now they really are just another notebook manufacturer vying for your dollar.

Being in corporate IT, I got rid of them a long time ago due to their unreliable notebooks, had it out with their service people and swore never to buy Toshiba again.

We've been with Asus since and have never looked back.

Won't touch Dell or HP for similar reasons.

All notebooks are good until something goes wrong, and that's when the manufacturers show their true colours.

Now before you say, my Dell, etc hasn't given me any trouble, I'm not talking about individual items, I'm talking about overall reliability over the years for hundreds of notebooks...

Toshiba was a pioneer in the early days, not now...
whatever you buy, GET EXTENDED WARRANTY!!! it'll be the best investment you ever made.

cheers.

[Falc'man]

Now that we're talking about notebooks and batteries this thread is better off here in the bar.