Ford, Toyota to Collaborate on Light-Truck Hybrids

Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. say they'll collaborate on a hybrid drive system for their respective light trucks and SUVs.

The announcement this week said the companies will co-operate in developing a system for next-generation rear-wheel-drive vehicles that will be marketed "later in this decade."

"Ford and Toyota believe that their collaboration will allow them to bring these hybrid technologies to customers sooner and more affordably than either company could have accomplished alone," the statement said.

Both companies pointed to their successes with hybrid systems for automobiles - Ford's Fusion and Toyota's Prius - and said the truck hybrid would benefit from lessons learned from the car products, including input from customers. Because the Fusion and Prius are electric-drive hybrids, it's likely that the truck version will also be electric.

Very limited sales of General Motors' Two-Mode Hybrid in Chevrolet and GMC 1500 series pickups and SUVs might suggest that the Ford-Toyota effort is unwise. But higher fuel prices are likely by the time any of the new products reach the market, and hybrid sales tend to follow gasoline and diesel prices, said Ryan Carmichael, a research analyst at Frost & Sullivan in Toronto.

Also, "Toyota found that the hybrid name itself has a certain amount of cache," he said. "With the Prius, you'll save $2,400 in gas over eight years but you've paid $8,000 more for the system. So the extra money is for the hybrid image." That's true for consumers, though not for most commercial buyers.

"I don't know a lot about it," commented Len Deluca, sales manager at Ford Commercial Truck. "My understanding is, it'll be good for both of us. I don't know if it'll be for SuperDuty or just the light F-150.

"It's a collaborative effort between two very good companies, and I would expect that we will both get a lot out of it. And it will provide better products for the customer."

The two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding, and expect to strike a final deal on hybrid development by year's end, the announcement said.