Toyota Wants California Low-Carbon Credits for Its Battery Cars ( EVHUB.BIZ EV news update )

Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s largest seller of hybrid vehicles, said potentially valuable emissions credits that California plans to give to utilities for supporting rechargeable cars should go to automakers instead.

Carmakers absorbed the costs to develop advanced vehicles to meet state requirements, Kevin Webber, Toyota’s U.S. general manager for regulation and certification engineering, said in comments filed last week with the California Public Utilities Commission. “Any societal benefit from the low-carbon-fuel aspect of these vehicles, especially the generation of credits, must accrue to the auto manufacturer,” he said.

The most populous U.S. state begins a program next year to cut carbon intensity of transportation fuels 10 percent by 2020 to pare emissions of gases linked to climate change. To entice utilities to accommodate demand growth spurred by charging of electric cars, the state plans to give credits that can be sold to fuel makers that need to offset carbon in their products.

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Toyota, General Motors Co., Nissan Motor Co. and other carmakers are preparing to sell models powered wholly or in part by rechargeable batteries. California requires the biggest carmakers to sell such vehicles, which are still costly because of the lithium-ion batteries that propel them.

The value of the credits hasn’t been set, and trading isn’t likely to begin until at least 2011. State regulators also are reviewing whether utility rates may need to be increased to cover the cost of charging infrastructure for electric cars.

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