The Toyota Motor Corp. and the Subaru of Indiana automotive (SIA) earlier started the production of the Camry in Indiana. The joint venture of the Japanese automaker was made public in March last year. Said venture include the production of Toyota Camry at SIA.

A $230 million investment gives SIA the capacity to produce 100,000 Camry units annually. The Toyota Camry production will add 1,000 associates for a total of more than 3,200 at SIA. Attending the ceremony were FHI president Ikuo Mori and Toyota Motor Corporation president Katsuaki Watanabe. They commended SIA associates and Toyota team members involved in the project’s development for their hard work and commitment to building America’s best-selling car at SIA.

Jim Press, the top man of Toyota’s North American operations, got the approval from shareholders last Friday to become the first non-Japanese member of the automaker’s board of directors.

Press, 60, a 37-year Toyota Motor Corp. veteran, was named to the board in April as part of the company’s initiative to boost its international standing. The decision comes as the Japanese automaker intends to increase sales in North America and grab a large slice of market share away from Detroit automakers. The increasing success of Toyota in foreign territories especially in the United States has prompted worries about a potential backlash.

The Toyota window motor and other auto parts from the automaker are landing on foreign ground with remarkable distinction. This distinction is intended to be safeguarded by eansuring management, production and sales.

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Toyota, the second largest automaker around the globe, is proud to be the presenting sponsor of the recently held Environmental Media Awards. The latter is a prestigious event aimed at promoting awareness of environment issues. The gala event displayed a powerhouse of stars and celebrities from film, music and television.

Previous honorees of Environmental Awards include Daryl Hannah, Cameron Diaz, Edward Norton, and programs like The Simpsons, Grey’s Anatomy, and Lilo & Stitch. “Entertainment is a potent vehicle for raising awareness of environmental issues,” said Dian Ogilvie, senior vice president and chief environmental officer of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. “The creative teams who are honored with an Environmental Media Award are inspiring people to think and act in ways that benefit our planet.”

Toyota is the world’s leader in hybrid technology. It has unleashed several hybrid cars to help reduce air pollution. Toyota and its other division called Lexus, offered five hybrids in the United States. These hybrids are for the SUV, midsized sedan, and sports car segments. To sum it up, Toyota hybrid vehicles contribute in saving more than 150 gallons of gas in the United States. Moreover, it has avoided over 3 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.

Toyota hybrid sales are led by Prius, which has a total of 500,000 worldwide sales in April. For 2006, Toyota is expected to sell more than 100,000 Prius in the U.S. Toyota Prius accessories amp performance parts are now enhanced to boost its new feature dubbed as Hybrid Synergy Drive.

Hybrid Synergy Drive is also integrated in the hybrid version for Toyota Highlander OEM parts. The crossover SUV hybrid with said feature was first introduced at the North American International Show in 2004.

The third hybrid in Toyota’s lineup is Camry Hybrid. The hybrid version for the automaker’s sedan was introduced for the model year 2007 in May 2006. Auto parts for Toyota Camry hybrid uses 4-cylinder gasoline engine woth electric motors to generate a peak of 187 horsepower. Camry Hybrid is also equipped with Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive.

The Highlander and Camry hybrids are 70 percent cleaner for smog-forming emissions compared to other average new vehicles of today. “Worldwide, Toyota plans to offer hybrid engines in many of our products and we’ve set a goal of one million hybrids by 2010,” said Dian Ogilvie. “We’ve made a very big commitment to this technology because it gives people a way to drive what they want, but produce fewer emissions and get higher fuel mileage at the same time.”



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To ensure the highest quality of Toyota Corollas, the Toyota Motor Corporation is now going to double the number of units for this vehicle model. The newest Toyota Corolla would be sent out for sale in Japan in the upcoming autumn season. And the officials from Toyota were the ones who announced such a plan for the Toyota Corollas. However, the Toyota officials did not disclose if they were also going to enforce such a plan for auto parts Toyota so as to also ensure quality.

From the usual 150 Toyota Corolla units in pre-production, Toyota, along with Kanto Auto Works Ltd., would be now producing some 300 Toyota Corolla prototypes. These would be the base of the company to see and check for quality. The company calls them the Toyota Corolla trial cars. This is indeed a very good move for the newest model of this line would be actually the tenth. And with the company having just recently suffered from vehicle and car problems, being safe with the newest batch of Toyota Corollas would surely do them good.

Toyota Motor Corp. is soliciting written and video testimonials from 10,000 hybrid owners. Though hybrid owners only represent less than 2 percent of the overall automobile sales market, Toyota is passionate about them. The automaker believes that customer testimonials can draw more customers.

One of the customers who have given Toyota hybrid testimonial is Craig, a Los Angeles-based Prius owner. Along with other hybrid owners who have given their testimonials, Craig is now on toyota.com/hybrids site. Other customer testimonials will make their way into broadcast spots.

Peter Kang, creative director of emerging technology at Saatchi & Saatchi, Los Angeles, Toyota’s primary agency, said he is now editing such footage for future ad campaigns. “These spots will be literally the same content as on the site, only in a different format. It’s easy to find people who are passionate for their hybrids, and these people will list their reasons for owning or being interested in hybrid technology. These people will be part of 15-second spots and they give very honest answers about what life is about and how this car is important to them,” Kang said.

Auto analysts are warning the automaker about the consequences of the move. Chevrolet had ventured in similar effort with its Tahoe unfortunately; it stumbled on the way. “It makes the people nervous to allow the consumer to get into this, but we monitor and filter the blogs,” said Gregg Benkendorfer, Toyota’s national manager of interactive marketing. “We don’t edit, but we filter; the last thing we need is a video by some guy with his girlfriend draped across a Prius.”

Toyota is the finest when it comes to hybrid car manufacture. To maintain this standing, the automaker intends to unveil a hybrid-only model in 2009. Asahi Shumbun, a Japanese newspaper, earlier reported that the model will be a midsize sedan with a 2.5- to 3-liter-engine, larger than that of the 1.5-liter Prius hatchback. The latter is Toyota’s first hybrid car. It is known for its cutting-edge Toyota parts for Prius. The model will be offered to the American hybrid market that prefers bigger auto engines.

Asahi Shumbun also reported that Toyota will also be considering other hybrid-only models like the minivan and the station wagon. In this regard, the automaker is developing a new hybrid system that is more affordable. It will be installed on Prius and other hybrid sedans.



By: Mark Clarkson

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British Formula One racing team WilliamsF1 announced last Thursday, July 27, that Toyota Motors will be the official engine supplier of WillilamsF1 for the next three consecutive years. In accordance with this, WilliamsF1 will end its one-year partnership with Cosworth, which is its current engine and transmission supplier. This will leave Cosworth without any supported racing team in the upcoming 2007 season. Toyota will also have to make their final decision on whether to abandon their own racing team to provide their full support for WilliamsF1, or to continue their F1 team.

The agreement was signed by both companies and will take effect starting 2007. According to the terms of agreement, WilliamsF1 will utilize engine specifications the same as the engines used by Panasonic Toyota Racing or the Toyota F1. Both racing teams are looking forward to attain essential benefits of their partnership.