Diesel or gasoline hybrids?

As the global financial crisis deepens, companies must hone their R&D programs and attempt to choose winning technologies, with the European OEMs, in particular, debating their hybrid strategies.

Time is running out for the auto industry's uncertainty on the matter of future powertrains. As the global financial crisis continues to tighten, senior executives' stock phrase that “many possible solutions are being considered, researched, and developed” may no longer be viable. There will almost certainly be a need to pursue more than one solution, but chasing “many” looks like a luxury that will be way beyond the financial survival kit.

Confident decisions have to be made because, for most manufacturers, money is no longer available for multiple-choice answers to the single but very tough question of what powertrain technology to back as the credit-crunch virus spreads to become a technology crunch.