A Hybrid Sharing Agreement Between GM, DCX to be Signed May 2005

General Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler AG said Monday they are close to signing a formal agreement to cooperate on their own gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle engine and don't need technology from Toyota Motor Corp.

The GM-DaimlerChrysler agreement should be signed within the next several weeks, said Kyle Johnson, a spokesman for GM, the world's largest automaker. The Wall Street Journal reported that GM might be considering cooperating with Toyota as well on an engine that uses both gasoline and electricity for propulsion.

Toyota Chairman Hiroshi Okuda wouldn't comment on the report Monday in Tokyo.

"We have our own alternative technology for hybrids; we have not talked to Toyota about hybrids," Johnson said.

DaimlerChrysler expects the formal agreement within a month, said Cole Quinnell, a spokesman for the German automaker's Chrysler Group unit, based in Auburn Hills. He said his company hasn't had discussions with Toyota on hybrids.

GM and DaimlerChrysler of Stuttgart, Germany, said Dec. 13 they plan to jointly develop a hybrid power system. They expect their first hybrid models in 2007, 10 years after Toyota, the world's second-largest automaker, introduced the first hybrid in Japan. U.S. hybrid sales rose to 35,474 in the first quarter from 16,807 in the same period a year earlier.

U.S. unleaded gasoline prices rose 48 percent this year through the end of April, putting pressure on automakers to provide more fuel-efficient cars and trucks.

More to come

Chrysler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said in March that he expects at least one other automaker to join the GM-DaimlerChrysler hybrid program this year. He wouldn't identify the automaker.

Peter Butterfield, chief executive of Kia Motors Corp.'s U.S. unit, said May 3 that Seoul-based Kia will have a hybrid model by 2006 or early 2007.

U.S. sales of some of the biggest sport-utility vehicles, such as Ford Motor Co.'s Explorer and GM's Suburban, declined last year and in the first four months of 2005. Sales are rising for smaller truck models that travel farther on a gallon of fuel, such as the Kia Sportage and Honda Motor Co.'s CR-V.

Toyota, the world's second-largest automaker, and Honda, Japan's third biggest, combined estimate they may sell as many as 200,000 hybrids this year.

Ford began selling its first hybrid, the Escape SUV, in September 2004, using some of its own technology and some licensed by Toyota.

Sales figures

Toyota's Prius car accounted for 34,225 U.S. sales through April. Hondasold 14,604 gasoline-electric Civic, Accord and Insight cars, and Ford sold 5,274 of its hybrid Escape SUVs.

In April, U.S. sales of hybrids reached 20,974, the highest one-month level since Toyota and Honda began selling the models in the United States five years ago.

April demand for the Prius nearly tripled from a year earlier, to 11,345, and the company also sold 2,345 of its new Lexus RX 400h hybrid SUVs.

SOURCE: Detroit Free Press

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