CAFE: Toyota's bad, growing addiction?

Toyota just loves trucks too much?

Toyota has long made excellent vehicles, but when it comes to the environment, Toyota has always lagged far behind its Japanese rival, Honda. Nevertheless, when Toyota pushed ahead with the Prius, despite mockery from the rest of the automotive world, it seemed the automaker might just be ready to push ahead of Honda.

Then again, it isn't just the Prius, it's all of Toyota's hybrid vehicles.

While most hybrid hype is placed upon the Prius, the Toyota Camry hybrid has quietly become a strong seller itself, a trend that I bet will only pick up pace. Moreover, if Toyota is correct when it claims that the price difference between hybrids and conventional gasoline vehicles will disappear within the next decade, then the Camry hybrid might soon outsell the Prius.

Thus, it's completely dumbfounding that Toyota continues to join the Big 3 against a significant increase in CAFE. If the future is all hybrid, as Toyota claims, and the hybrid price differential will soon end - another Toyota claim - then 35 mpg fleet economy should be a cake-walk by 2020.

So, what's up with Toyota? Does it fear high CAFE standards will destroy U.S. automakers and bring a backlash against foreign autos? Is Toyota still uncertain about the future of hybrids? Or, are the ridiculous profit margins of large, gas-guzzling vehicles just too bloody addictive?

Where's the kaizen?