I've been reading up on this and watching how everything has been unfolding and it's a sad reality to see this happen. It's been written on the wall even before it began but it was definitely great to see them go through with the concept.



Yeah I know it's not a Toyota but it does send a deep message across all other manufacturers. VW made a concept Golf that combines a 1.2L diesel and a hybrid electric drive matted with a 7 speed DSG transmission which yields a really thrifty performance. Unfortunately even with the 69mpg stat the cost to manufacture this vehicle outweighs the reality of the price point it should sell at.

Volkswagen’s Dr. Jens Hadler, executive director of powertrain development, said that stop-start devices—a very mild form of hybridization which shuts down a gas engine when the vehicle comes to a stop—can give clear savings, but a car with a full hybrid system, like the Toyota Prius, is too costly. He estimated that while stop-start systems could save 3 to 5% of CO2 emissions, a full hybrid like the Prius would save five times the fuel, but at 18 times the cost. Hadler sees this cost coming down with successive generations of hybrids, but not enough to make hybrids worthwhile in the future. This stance leaves little hope that Volkswagen will put its 70-mpg diesel-electric full hybrid Golf concept into production.

Franz Fehrenbach, CEO of Bosch, said that diesel hybrids, like the Golf concept, make even less sense than gasoline hybrids. According to Fehrenbach’s calculations, a gasoline full hybrid adds €2,000 to the cost of a car, but delivers only €1,500 in fuel savings over the first three years of the life of a vehicle. That’s a €500 loss over three years. The hole gets bigger with a diesel full hybrid, which adds €3,500 in cost but delivers €2,500 in savings, according to Fehrenbach.
So I guess this means no diesel hybrid in the near future. I wonder how this will change with the CAFE standard now being proposed at 31.6mpg by 2015?

Source: Hybrid Cars