Toyota to sell batteries to competitors to boost investment

Toyota Motor Corp, the largest seller of gasoline-electric autos, says that it wants to sell batteries for plug-in cars to competitors to generate the biggest return possible from its investment.

Along with making packs for a plug-in version of the Prius hybrid, which sales fell almost 45 percent compared to a year earlier, Toyota wants additional revenue from supplying packs to rivals, Executive Vice-President Masatami Takimoto said in an interview on Monday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Toyota has dominated the hybrid market since it began selling the Prius model in Japan in 1997, and on Monday showed a revamped model due this year.