3rd Party Hybrid Investment, Still Hype?

GM exec. Bob Lutz has characterized the story of hybrid cars as mostly hype and slick PR. Toyota, Lutz would have us believe, spent billions of dollars on hybrids - as most of the industry ridiculed them - for PR?

That's quite a risk for an auto-manufacturer almost obsessed with manufacturing efficiency.

One of the biggest reasons Japanese cars have better resale value in the United States compared to American-made vehicles is due to reliability. Ultimately, many analysts believe this difference is caused by one thing, efficiency.

The Japanese simply embrace a manufacturing process built around trying to increase efficiency. They constantly ask, How can we get from point A to point B more efficiently - where cost is not always the deciding factor.

Therefore, the Japanese manufacturing process has become more flexible and adaptable.

Thus, Toyota would not invest in new technologies, such as hybrids, because they were PR motivated, but because they envisioned such technology would be more efficient in the long run.

And as third-party manufacturers and suppliers start investing in hybrids and competing with each other - innovation, increased efficiency, and cheaper prices are sure to follow.

Therefore, this weekend's top news stories are all the more important.

Sanyo's increased NiMH battery production is just the beginning, as the company ramps up for what they see as a burgeoning multi-billion dollar market in just the next couple of years (more on this story).

And Toshiba sees the same forecast for the hybrid market, offering to spend almost $100 million to produce semiconductors for Toyota hybrids in just the next two years to secure a share of the hybrid market (more on this story).

All this PR must be getting really expensive.