Hybrid News

Filed under: Toyota, Green Daily, European Union, Japan

click the Toyota iQ for high res gallery

Ever since seeing the concept Toyota iQ last year and then the prototype version earlier this summer, we’ve been wondering how the asymmetrical configuration of the 3+1 seating arrangement and the iQ’s overall small size would work for an average driver. We still don’t know exactly how practical this tiny car (it’s 9.8ft-long and has a 78.8in wheelbase) is, but the folks over at Edmunds say that the iQ is nothing if not spacious and solid to drive. Edmunds heard from Toyota that the European-spec iQ will be available with either a one-liter, five-speed manual or a turbocharged 1.4L diesel with a six speed manual (yes, please). Later, a 1.3L with variable valve timing version will be available with either a six-speed manual or a continuously variable transmission.

We’re getting more and more jealous that this mini-car is destined to be available in Japan and Europe but might take a pass on the U.S. There’s been no official word from Toyota on U.S. sales, but we’re willing to vote “aye” if we’re ever asked if we want one.

[Source: Edmunds]

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Original post by Sebastian Blanco

Coming a year ahead of schedule

Due to rising fuel economy concerns, Toyota is going to “quickly and flexibly” respond according to reports coming out of Japan. Thus, Toyota will launch a plug-in Prius for fleet customers in late 2009, a year ahead of schedule. It will also speed up development on pure electric cars as the hybrid king increases production on hybrid vehicles.

Original post by Dahcredyns

Filed under: Toyota, Green Daily

It’s going to be difficult, I think, for popular music fans to see the name of Toyota’s new social website - Heya - and not think of the hit Outkast song from a couple sexy summers ago. But, if you speak a bit of Japanese, then you know that “heya” means room, and that’s the meaning that the Japanese automaker is trying to bring to the online space: a place where Toyota fans, gearheads and others can come together and talk shop.

Some of the eco-minded areas of Heya include the pages dedicated to the SiteLA contest, the SiteLA collaborations, and the SEMA concept car contest (sorry, but you’ll need to register to view these pages I think). The SiteLA area, for example, was a collaborative space to “explore our visions of the future of transportation.” The entry period for this competition is over, but there are still a large number of interesting ideas in this thread to keep you reading for a while, things like hybrid motorcycles and hoverboards (the poster adds: “I’m completely serious” in case you were wondering). We’ll keep an eye on Heya in the coming months and see what other surprises it brings.

[Source: Toyota]

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Original post by Sebastian Blanco

Filed under: Hybrid, Toyota

Next spring will be a big one for hybrid fans as a new generation of the Toyota Prius will get its most direct competitor yet in the shape of a new hybrid only model from Honda. We’ve already seen an assortment of spy shots of the camo-covered exterior of the Prius. Now we have our first peak at the interior of the new best-seller. The third (or fourth depending on how you count) generation Prius will officially debut at the Detroit Auto Show in January along with a Lexus badged hybrid-only model.

Although Toyota is loathe to relinquish details, it’s believed the new model will have a larger, more powerful engine growing from 1.5 to 1.8L along with an electric motor with more oomph. The beefed up motor is likely in preparation for the plug-in variant that should go into low volume fleet service in 2010. To make the most out of a plug-in system, the hybrid needs enough electric power to propel the car at least around town without having to start the engine frequently.

[Source: World Car Fans]

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Original post by Sam Abuelsamid

Filed under: Hybrid, MPG, Toyota

The Detroit-based automakers aren’t the only ones making rapid and dramatic changes to future product plans. Mighty Toyota is shifting its future mix directly in response to the reality on the ground. At the 2007 Detroit Auto Show, the company unveiled a hybrid powered coupe concept called the FT-HS. This coupe was believed to presage a revival of the Supra sports car that went away in 2002. It now appears that the Supra will remain dead in spite of the possibility of hybrid drive. This might have something to do with the lukewarm response that most performance oriented hybrids have received in the marketplace along with the need to increase fleet fuel economy. The general economic malaise also plays against a new premium sports car.

An existing product that won’t see a successor is the FJ Cruiser. The FJ is a niche product in a rapidly shrinking SUV segment and the similarly sized 4Runner has already been redesigned for 2010 so the FJ will bite the dust. In the big trucks production is being slashed and smaller, more efficient base engines get more emphasis than the big 5.7L V8. Instead of all of these formerly hot selling and high-profit vehicles, even more small cars like the new 5-door Yaris and the new 2010 Prius, will become the focus of Toyota’s attention and production capacity.

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req.]

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Original post by Sam Abuelsamid

Filed under: Hybrid, MPG, Toyota

The Detroit-based automakers aren’t the only ones making rapid and dramatic changes to future product plans. Mighty Toyota is shifting its future mix directly in response to the reality on the ground. At the 2007 Detroit Auto Show, the company unveiled a hybrid powered coupe concept called the FT-HS. This coupe was believed to presage a revival of the Supra sports car that went away in 2002. It now appears that the Supra will remain dead in spite of the possibility of hybrid drive. This might have something to do with the lukewarm response that most performance oriented hybrids have received in the marketplace along with the need to increase fleet fuel economy. The general economic malaise also plays against a new premium sports car.

An existing product that won’t see a successor is the FJ Cruiser. The FJ is a niche product in a rapidly shrinking SUV segment and the similarly sized 4Runner has already been redesigned for 2010 so the FJ will bite the dust. In the big trucks production is being slashed and smaller, more efficient base engines get more emphasis than the big 5.7L V8. Instead of all of these formerly hot selling and high-profit vehicles, even more small cars like the new 5-door Yaris and the new 2010 Prius, will become the focus of Toyota’s attention and production capacity.

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req.]

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Original post by Sam Abuelsamid

Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Etc., EV/Plug-in, Transportation Alternatives, On Two Wheels, Japan

In a move that’s sure to knock the Segway world off balance, Toyota has introduced its new “personal transport assistance robot” called the Winglet. Actually, there’s three of them. One with a tall handle that could be seen as more practical and two other sportier models featuring supports gripped by the legs. They offer the same ease of use as the Dean Kaman-invented precursor but with a lot less bulk and a smaller footprint. They can reach speeds over 6 mph but they won’t be cruising American sidewalks anytime soon. The devices are to undergo more consumer testing this Fall at a Japanese airport as well as a seaside resort. Early 2010 is the target date given for their earth-wide unleashing. Look them over in the gallery below in detail before hitting the jump for 3 videos worth of Winglet gone wild action as well as the official press release.

[Source: Toyota / YouTube / Engadget]

Continue reading VIDEO: Look out Segway, Toyota introduces the Winglet!

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Original post by Domenick Yoney

Filed under: Hybrid, Manufacturing/Plants, MPG, Toyota, USA

Click above for more high-res shots of the 2007 Toyota Prius Touring

The numbers for last year’s combined fleet fuel efficiency for all automakers in the United States has been tallied. The winner? Um, Lotus. But, they don’t really count. Too small. For manufacturers that actually offer a full line of automobiles, Toyota with 29.69 mpg just barely edged out the likes of Honda, which posted 29.49, and Hyundai with 29.37. All those Prius hybrid sales surely helped push Toyota to the top this year. Not surprisingly, the Detroit 3 didn’t even come close with 25.16 from GM and 25.15 from Ford. DaimlerChrysler propped up the rear with a dismal 23.97 average figure.

Toyota has no plans to give up the mileage crown. In fact, the Japanese giant will increase capacity of its upcoming third-gen Prius sedan by an astonishing 70-percent at the Tsutsumi factory in Japan, allowing for the production of 480,000 hybrid sedans per year. For 2010, Toyota plans to bring its Mississippi plant online, which will further serve to increase capacity. We have a feeling that it’ll have little trouble selling every one it manufacturers.

[Sources: NHTSA (.pdf link), Automotive News - sub. req’d]

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Original post by Jeremy Korzeniewski

Filed under: Toyota

With the first occupants set to move into Toyota’s new Technical Center just south of Ann Arbor, MI just a few weeks from now, the company is hoping to get it certified as a “green” building. Toyota constructed the facility on the site of the former Ypsilanti Psychiatric Hospital. The company reused crushed building materials from the old buildings during the construction of roads and parking lots on the new campus. Additional building materials for the campus have been sourced from within 500 miles of Ann Arbor.

Inside the facilities waterless urinals, low emitting paints and efficient under floor ventilation systems are used. Toyota is hoping to get a gold certification under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED program.

By happenstance the very location of the facility also worked out to be beneficial. Toyota managed to buy the property for the facility from the state in 2006 over the objections of a developer who had offered more money. The developer wanted to build yet another sub-division with several thousand homes, which given the collapse of the real estate bubble would likely be sitting unsold and empty now. Instead Toyota will be consolidating employees from several buildings scattered around the eastern fringes of Ann Arbor along with hiring several hundred new employees. By moving everyone into a single facility, there were will be less driving from one facility to another for meetings.

[Source: Saline Reporter]

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Original post by Sam Abuelsamid

Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Manufacturing/Plants, Toyota, Japan

There’s more than one way to paint a car. We’ve featured models with cans and brushes, the option of going sans paint entirely and we’ve even seen electricity generated from leftover paint fumes. Of course, automakers strive for the highest paint quality possible. The processes they come up with are often very time-consuming and cover many different steps, so it’s not all that surprising that Toyota would find a way to both streamline and green up the process a bit. At its Tsutsumi plant in Japan, which is already equipped with solar panels and a rooftop garden, the automaker is currently testing its new “3-Wet” system, which cuts down one entire drying oven. According to Toyota, a 15-percent reduction in energy can be realized using this new process, which is substantial, considering that it estimates as much as 24 percent of the total energy necessary to create one of its cars comes from the painting process.

[Source: The Detroit News]

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Original post by Jeremy Korzeniewski

Filed under: Diesel, Toyota, UK

The Toyota Auris, the compact 5-door hatchback set to compete in the most difficult European segment is now available with a new diesel powertrain. The unit is a 1.4-liter D-4D 90 engine, with 89bhp (90 DIN hp) at 3,800rpm and maximum torque of 190 Nm (140 lb-ft), which can be ordered with a 5-speed manual or MultiMode transmission (with fully automatic or manual sequential modes).

Official combined cycle fuel consumption is 56.5mpg UK (46 mpg U. S. or 5.0 l/100 km) and average CO2 emissions of 132g/km. Top speed is 109mph and the 0 to 100 km/h (62mph) acceleration figure in 12.0 seconds (14.7 with MultiMode transmission).

[Source: Toyota UK]

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Original post by Xavier Navarro

Filed under: Etc., Toyota, Japan

Since the Japanese Health Ministry first recognized Karoshi (literally death from too much work) in 1987, the number of claims has steadily increased. In fact, in the year between March of 2006 and 2007, there were 303 claims of Karoshi made, with 147 of those cases acknowledged as accurate by the government. Those are some sobering statistics, and the auto industry in Japan is certainly not immune to the problem. An unnamed man who was a lead engineer on the Camry hybrid project from Toyota died from overwork in January of 2006, according to a recent ruling by the Health Ministry. The forty-five year old man is said to have worked eighty hours of overtime per month, including nights and weekends. He died from heart disease the day before he was scheduled to leave for the U.S. as part of the team preparing for the Detroit Auto Show.

Toyota, for its part, has acknowledged the ruling and says it will work on improving the monitoring of its employees. This latest case will certainly lend some credence for some regarding the recent allegations of workers rights abuses by Toyota, though it is impossible for us to accurately say whether or not the auto giant is directly responsible for the man’s death.

[Source: AP via Yahoo]

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Original post by Jeremy Korzeniewski

A lithium-powered hybrid?

The Toyota and Matsushita hybrid vehicle battery partnership, formally called Panasonic EV Energy Co, have begun studying the process of mass producing lithium-ion batteries for hybrid vehicles.

Additionally, Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe, again reiterated the company’s focus on hybrids as a key to a sustainable future, as well as the goal of offering a hybrid option for every Toyota vehicle.

Original post by Dahcredyns

Filed under: Hybrid, Honda, Subaru, Toyota

In Subaru’s probably several-year-old video above (I’m basing the age on changes in car availability, fuel and mileage), the Subaru Legacy is compared to its “very direct competitors” the Toyota Camry hybrid and Honda Accord hybrid when it comes to the price of the car, fuel use costs and time of payback for the price hybrid price premium. Subaru presents the price and mileage as showing a “pretty big advantage to the Camry and Accord. Right? But wait, lets look at what these numbers really mean.” After some number crunching, we find it will take 10.8 years (”that’s a long time”) and 32.4 years (”that’s certainly no bargain”) to make up for the “cost penalty” of buying these hybrids and not the Subaru Legacy.

The video also points out hybrids can go “at very low speeds” on electric power alone but “it is no easy task to coordinate the efforts of the electric motor and the gasoline engine.” Batteries, the video notes, are “heavy and expensive” and hybrids require “complex systems” to shut off at stop lights. Subaru says they “are not trying to make light of the fuel economy achievements of the these hybrids vehicles. But we are also not convinced that they are worth the price premium as these numbers illustrate.”

Has this video convinced you the Subaru Legacy is better than the Toyota Camry hybrid and Honda Accord hybrid? How will today’s arguments for and against hybrids look in five years?

Related:

• Diesel Subies to beat hybrids to market
• Geneva Motor Show: Subaru will bring Justy back, is considering all-electric small car
• Subaru announces diesel engine for 2008
• Subaru aims for diesel cars by end of 2007
• Subaru sells 100,000 PZEVs and sends nothing to the dump for three years

[Source: YouTube]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Original post by Lascelles Linton

Filed under: Mitsubishi

Add Mitsubishi to the list of carmakers going to Thailand to make green cars. Mitsubishi will spend 20 billion yen (US$179 million) to produce some 100,000 cars cars a year with small engines, high MPG and low CO₂ emissions (this means engines that are 1.3 liters or smaller, vehicles that get 20km per liter (56.6 MPG) and emit less than 192 grams of CO₂ per mile (120 g/km)). We told you Toyota intended to submit the application November 30th and now, we have news Toyota has submitted their application as well to join the Thai eco-car program and will invest 17 billion yen.

The Thai government program involves giving tax breaks (a 50 percent cut in the excise tax, no income tax for 8 years and machinery imports duty free) to car makers to build eco-cars in their country, if they invest a significant amount in a plant. Thus far, the program has attracted Toyota, Honda, Suzuki, Nissan and even Ford is rumored to join the program. Honda has already invested 6,700 million baht (about $220 million US) in Thailand auto production facilities. Suzuki and Nissan are expected to invest 9,500 million baht ($313 million) and 5,550 million ($183 million). Thailand has also invited smaller car companies like Tata to make the air car in Thailand for a paltry $39M investment.

I guess this proves, finally, that big corporations like giant tax breaks.

Related:

• Low Taxes for Eco-Car Makers in Thailand
• Toyota likes free money, signs on to Thailand’s eco-car plan
• Suzuki and Nissan benefit from Thailand’s low taxes for building cleaner cars

[Source: Asia Pulse]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Original post by Lascelles Linton