Toyota aims to remain king of the hybrids

Tokyo — As Toyota heads to the Detroit auto show that opens to the press Monday, the company aims to burnish its reputation as a leader in environmental technology — an image increasingly under threat from resurgent rivals.

In Detroit, both Nissan and General Motors will be promoting their new electric-powered vehicles, which began reaching consumers last month. And Ford, which will start selling an all-electric version of its popular Focus compact this year, will also use the show to promote its green credentials.

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As Toyota works at the Detroit show, it will be trying to convince customers that there is still mileage in the gas-electric hybrid technology it pioneered more than a decade ago with its Prius. The Prius, the world's first mass-produced hybrid car, accelerates and runs at low speeds on an electric motor and batteries, with a gasoline engine kicking in at higher speeds.

In ads on television and YouTube, Toyota has been previewing a new addition to the Prius lineup that it will introduce at the auto show.

"I can't show you everything just yet, but here's a sneak peek," a skateboarder says in one of the ads as he zooms past a car shrouded in a black veil, which billows up just long enough to reveal the car's outline. Toyota might be on the defensive, if only because of its many reputation-tarnishing recalls in the last year. But the automaker is particularly vexed to find itself having to restate its credentials as the industry's environmental leader, something it has had little trouble claiming since it introduced the Prius in 1997.

Nissan, one of Toyota's main Japanese rivals, calls its new battery-powered Leaf hatchback the world's first mass-produced, all-electric vehicle. Its ad campaign for the United States features a polar bear running from a melting ice cap to hug a Leaf owner in a big city meant to evoke San Francisco. The tag line: "Innovation for the planet, innovation for all." A resurgent GM, meanwhile, is claiming a breakthrough with the Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid that runs on rechargeable batteries for up to 50 miles before a gasoline engine kicks in. Last month, at the Economic Club of Washington, GM's chief executive, Daniel F. Akerson, called the Toyota Prius a "geek-mobile" that he would never want to drive.

But Toyota, even as it emphasizes the company's environmental record, is skeptical of all-electric vehicles. It remains committed to the hybrid technology, which it has spent at least $1 billion to develop. By the end of 2012, the company plans to introduce six new hybrid vehicles and says that all its models will come in hybrid versions by 2020.

"Customers are going to ultimately decide what kind of car they want to drive," said Keisuke Kirimoto, a Toyota spokesman based in Tokyo. "And whatever customers choose, we will be there."

While it remains committed to hybrids, Toyota is hedging its bets on electric technology. In late 2009 it developed and started leasing a small number of its own plug-in hybrid vehicles, which have a range of about 13 miles before the gasoline engine starts. The model is scheduled to go on sale next year.

And last May, Toyota invested $50 million in the Silicon Valley electric car startup Tesla Motors. It signed a separate $60 million deal with Tesla to develop a fully electric vehicle to run on lithium-ion battery packs. The two showed off a prototype at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November.

Toyota also is developing its own tiny all-electric vehicle, which it says it will begin selling in 2012. But the company takes pains to say the battery-powered car will serve a niche market of drivers making only very short commutes.

Toyota, however, needs more than niche markets to help it after a year marred by recalls of 11 million vehicles — including the Prius — for faulty gas pedals, floor mats that could trap accelerators or braking and engine defects. Those flaws, as well as Toyota's handling of the recalls, have tarnished its reputation for safety.

Toyota's sales in the United States have suffered as a result. This week the company reported declines for December and for all of 2010, saying sales fell 5.5 percent last month from a year earlier and 0.4 percent for the year. That made Toyota the biggest loser in a recovery year for the overall U.S. auto market, which grew 11.5 percent in 2009 from a year earlier to 11.6 million cars, according to the research firm, Autodata.

That is why so much is riding on Toyota as it heads to the Detroit auto show.

"Last year, we caused people a lot of concern," Toyota's chief executive, Akio Toyoda, said Wednesday in Tokyo. "But we also learned a lot," he said.

Asked by the public broadcaster NHK to think of a word to describe Toyota's strategy for 2011, Toyoda smiled.

"Jump," he said. "We want to make a big jump."