When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Toyota considers entering aircraft industry: official
Japan's Toyota Motor, which is widely expected to overtake General Motors this year as the world's top-selling automaker, is considering entering the aircraft industry, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Toyota may put up funds to a company to be set up by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for its passenger jet project, Toyota spokeswoman Kayo Doi said.
"Mitsubishi Heavy has invited us to invest (in the venture) and we are considering it," she said, while adding nothing has been decided yet.
The comment came after a report Wednesday in the Asahi Shimbun daily which says Toyota plans to put up 10 billion yen (97 million dollars) in the venture to be set up in April.
Mitsubishi has been developing small passenger airplanes under its Mitsubishi Regional Jet project.
Not really. Toyota still has a long way to go to be considered an equal to Honda diversity and innovation. Even as lackluster Honda products may be right now, the amount of research and development put forth by Honda is untouched in the industry. Honda is a true contributor to society while Toyota just likes to pretend. Honda has ALWAYS been concerned about the environment, Toyota started when it became trendy.
FYI, this isn't the first time Toyota has considered aviation. Toyota considered joining the aviation industry way back when Honda announced they were beginning development. They actually had ad's in the papers seeking engineers. I guess that didn't materialize since it seems like they are just hiring Mitsubishi to do the work now.
Yamaha already made a bunch of engines for Toyota.... the BEAMS, 2ZZ, and the upcoming engine for some keicar they have, plus the 2000GT engine. Would be a possibly good, lucrative deal for them and would help them get back into the sports car market.
Toyota doubts widespread acceptance of plug-in hybrids
From Motor Authority...
The idea that plug-in hybrids aren't all they're cracked up to be isn't a new one. Carnegie Mellon University has even published a study that calls the technology inefficient and cost-prohibitive. Now it looks like Toyota may be in agreement, saying it doesn't expect more than 50,000 plug-in hybrid sales a year - across the entire industry.
That's a tiny amount compared to even the Toyota Prius, which alone sold almost 160,000 copies in 2008. The gloomy outlook on plug-in hybrid sales is based on their high price, long recharge times and durability issues with their battery-dependent systems, Bill Reinert, Toyota's U.S. manager for advanced technology, told the National Academy of Sciences panel in Washington today.
A Bloomberg report also highlights the relationship between fuel prices and interest in hybrids, particularly plug-in hybrids, which can escape the need for fuel altogether under certain circumstances.
General Motors has previously made its disagreement with such assessments of plug-in hybrid technology known, saying that expense alone isn't always a problem for buyers of hybrids. There is ideological motivation behind the purchase, or at least a social motivation.
And beyond that, it will be difficult to achieve the newly announced national fuel efficiency standards' rapid rises without some form of more advanced powertrain technology. Carnegie Mellon's study found that using smaller battery packs that provide just 7-12mi range on electricity would yield the ultimate balance of efficiency and cost.
Toyota is still expected to release its own plug-in hybrid by late 2009 or early 2010 according to the latest reports, however, and testing of the vehicles is already underway.
Toyota’s long-rumored three sports car strategy is inching closer to becoming a reality.
We already knew that Toyota was working with BMW to create a successor to the legendary Supra, but now the automaker’s lead sports car engineer, Tetsuya Tada, says that development has also begun on an entry-level rear-wheel-drive coupe that will be positioned below the Toyota GT86/ Scion FR-S.
Although the affordable new model has yet to receive official approval for production,Tada states that it has the support of Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, whose passion for driver-focused machines helped make the Scion FR-S a reality.
A small RWD coupe would seemingly be the sort of niche product that would send bean counters into hysterics, however Toyota believes lessons gleaned from the GT86/FR-S project would ensure that it is financially viable.
“[The rear wheel drive sports car] sounds like it’s very difficult to do [on a] new platform,” Tada said. “However, Toyota has learnt a lot from 86 project and Toyota has much experience in terms of technology and development in the way we develop vehicles efficiently and cost effectively. We have all these experiences and skills”.
Tada also hinted that Toyota could elect to co-develop the sports car with another company, which comes as little surprise after the automaker's existing projects with Subaru and BMW.
A name hasn't been selected for the model yet, but it wouldn't take a large stretch of the imagination to envision Toyota reviving either its MR2 or Celica badges.
Can't imagine it being any more entry-level and smaller than the FT-86 unless they make it a two-seater.
I thought Scion was the Toyota word for entry level. They are trying their hardest to salvage that tarnished brand in the states. As a result, Toyota is a snooze brand in the US with nothing to make us excited. They should have used the 86 in the US with a Toyota badge.
(Reuters) - Eiji Toyoda, who helped steer Toyota Motor Corp's global rise and pioneered the automaker's vaunted production system, died on Tuesday, the Japanese automaker said. He was 100.
Toyoda, cousin of the automaker's founder, died of heart failure in Toyota City, the company said in a statement.
A taciturn engineer, Toyoda served as president between 1967 and 1982. He was chairman until 1994 and remained an honorary advisor at Toyota up until the time of his death.
Over his career, Toyoda presided over Toyota's rise in the U.S. market from the launch of the Corolla in the late 1960s to the decision to begin making cars in the United States in the late 1980s.
Toyoda was also instrumental in developing what became the automaker's much-imitated method of producing cars with as little waste as possible and continual quality improvements, a system that became known as the "Toyota Way".
In 1950, company founder Kiichiro Toyoda sent Eiji, a graduate of the University of Tokyo, to Ford Motor Co's massive Rouge Plant to learn about car making from the company that had pioneered mass production.
In a story that is still shared at Toyota training sessions, Toyoda returned to Japan impressed with U.S. materials and machinery but convinced that he could make improvements to Ford's world-famous production system.
"Japan's automobile industry facilities and engineers are good but our machine tools are inferior. If we can solve this problem, we can manufacture good and economic vehicles that are equal to America's," Toyoda wrote after his month and a half of training at Ford's major factories.
At the time of his death, Toyoda was being treated at a hospital the company had first founded as a clinic for its factory workers in 1938.
Toyota and BMW's collaboration will extend into a new range of mid-engined sports cars to challenge the benchmark Porsche 911, CAR can reveal.
Developed under the codename Silk Road 2, the proposed BMW Z7 and Lexus ZC/ZR are cutting-edge sports cars which will cost around €90,000, or £73,000. Slap bang in Porsche Carrera territory, then.
Project Silk Road 2: Toyota and BMW's new sports car twins to rival the 911
Don't confuse this with the first BMW-Toyota sports car project already confirmed by Munich. The German-Japanese alliance is co-developing a pair of front-engined BMW Z4/Toyota GT86 replacements, due around 2017.
SR2 denotes a second, much more grown-up kind of sports car. Although the programme is still in its infancy, CAR understands the sports cars are already under development and will break with tradition in more ways than one.
Read on for our full scoop for what insiders refer to as the new Supra and BMW's 911.
What we know about SR2: the Toyota/BMW sports cars
This will be the first mid-engined mainstream two-seater for both brands - as well as the first plug-in hybrid sports car with a six-cylinder engine.
According to an insider, it was BMW who pushed for this car ever since it was clear that the proposed 630bhp carbonfibre M8 would be grounded to keep the road clear for the politically more correct i8.
A 3.0-litre twin-turbo six
Due to see the light in late 2018 or early 2019, SR2 will be developed in Munich for both brands. And providing the firepower are two different calibrations of what is essentially the same twin-turbo in-line 3.0-litre straight six.
Originally intended to revive the Toyota Supra nameplate, the lightweight newcomer is now widely referred to as the Lexus LFA's little brother, aka ZC/ZR. Not to be confused with MG's tarted-up Rover 25 hot hatch...
A quick look at the spec sheet will banish any such Longbridge associations: common components are believed to include a twin-turbo engine, a super-swift seven-speed, dual-clutch transmission, a supplementary 150bhp e-motor, performance batteries packaged between the seats, composite brakes, an adjustable double-wishbone suspension, active aerodynamics and an electric power steering system.
How fast will the BMW-Toyota sports cars be?
The aggregate power output would be in the 400 to 500bhp bracket, which will be needed to overcome what our engineering sources predict will be a kerbweight under 1650 kilos. So expect the Silk Road twins to be outrageously fast.
Could the 911's hegemony as the benchmark £70k sports car be under threat? If anyone can make a dent on the Porsche's dominance, we'd back BMW and Toyota to make a fist of it...
Last year, the man tasked with sports car development at Toyota, Tetsuya Tada, revealed that the Japanese automaker was planning a three-tier sports car lineup, with the GT 86 (sold here as a Scion FR-S) sitting in the middle. At the top of the range will be the Supra successor, previewed by the stunning FT-1 concept car, while at the bottom will be an all-new car that we know very little about. All we do know is that all three cars will feature rear-wheel drive, although it’s possible the Supra successor will feature a hybrid-based all-wheel-drive system.
Now, Holiday Auto (via Motoring) has managed to scrape together some details. According to the Japanese publication, the new entry-level sports car will feature a shooting brake-like body combining elements of a coupe and a hatch. Inside, there will be 2+2 seating; think Toyota’s version of the Volkswagen Scirocco.
A new platform is needed, according to the report, and lightweight construction is said to be key. The final curb weight is expected to come in under 2,200 pounds, which will allow engineers to fit a small engine yet still deliver exciting performance. A 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine with about 134 horsepower is said to be planned.
The launch date for Toyota’s entry-level sports car in the Japanese market is said to be early 2018. If approved for the U.S. market we’ll likely see it in the fall of that year. A concept version could be shown as early as 2015’s Tokyo Motor Show.
Toyota spokesperson David Lee confirmed at the 2019 Denver Auto Show that the Japanese automaker's TRD performance division has something on the way—something coming soon.
Lee made the announcement during a media Q&A session when he was asked whether TRD is working on more than just its increasingly popular off-road lineup, which recently grew to include the Rav4 and Sequoia.
"It seems like we have a lot of TRD Off-Road stuff these days, but what about our passenger cars, right? That kind of thing. We don't have anything official to say, but I would advise you to keep your eyes peeled," said Lee. "That concept of having TRD stuff for our on-road vehicles is nowhere near being over [sic]. You'll see some stuff coming from us. You'll have to be a little [patient] with us, but it's coming."
"I think you may see some more TRD-themed items, production-wise, coming from us in the near future," Lee concluded.
Lee was unable to answer whether these "high-performance variants" will be sold under Toyota's traditional TRD sporting brand, or its new Gazoo Racing marque, which is shortened simply to GR on its first branded model, the immensely popular 2020 Toyota GR Supra.
TOKYO — Toyota has opened a proving ground outside Toyota City that includes a "mini-Nürburgring" track where it hopes to pursue its goal of making its vehicles more fun to drive.
The sprawling ¥300 billion ($2.68 billion) test course covers 2.5 square miles of wooded hills, mimicking the famed German race circuit where President Akio Toyoda cut his teeth as a competitive driver and Toyota Motor Corp. continues to race and test its cars.
"Based on long experience of the Nürburgring Nordschleife, which is famous throughout the world for its grueling driving conditions," the company said in a release, "Toyota has designed an exacting test course that takes advantage of local topography and features a roughly 75-meter change in elevation between its highest and lowest points, as well as a wide range of curves and corners." The 3.3-mile road course opened last week as the first section of a technical center that will eventually encompass a high-speed test track and specialized courses replicating roads from around the world. It will also include new centers for vehicle development.
Toyota Technical Center Shimoyama will employ 3,300 people when it is fully operational in 2023. Japan's top-selling automaker said it needs a bigger proving ground closer to its global headquarters and r&d center in Toyota City, near Nagoya in central Japan.
The new site is about 30 minutes away.
In a statement about the new center, Toyoda cited his company's experience at Nürburgring and in the so-called Five Continent Drive Project — a multiyear, round-the-world test drive — as inspiration for the facility.
"With the aim of making ever-better cars, we have continued to make various efforts in 'feeling the road' and 'conversing with cars' through driving tests around the world," he said in the statement. "With the replication of severe driving conditions at the new test course, we intend to thoroughly hone every one of our models and develop the types of cars that epitomize the true joy of driving."
Toyota and Subaru Agree to Jointly Develop BEV-dedicated Platform and BEV SUV
Jun. 06, 2019
Tokyo, Japan, June 6, 2019―Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) and Subaru Corporation (Subaru) disclosed today that they have agreed to jointly develop a platform dedicated to battery electric vehicles (BEVs) for midsize and large passenger vehicles and to jointly develop a C-segment-class BEV SUV model for sale under each company's own brand. By combining their respective strengths, such as the all-wheel-drive technologies that Subaru has cultivated over many years and the vehicle electrification technologies that Toyota is employing to bring together other companies that share its aspirations, the two companies intend to take up the challenge of creating attractive products with appeal that only BEVs can offer.
Ever since concluding an agreement on business collaboration in 2005, Toyota and Subaru have been deepening their cooperation in various fields, including development, production, and sales. Examples include efforts that led to the start of sales of the jointly developed rear-wheel-drive Toyota 86 and Subaru BRZ in 2012 and the start of sales of Subaru's Crosstrek Hybrid original plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) in the United States, to which was applied knowledge related to Toyota's HEV technologies.
The automotive industry is in the midst of a once-in-a-century period of profound transformation. Starting with responses to the new CASE domains of car connectivity, autonomous or assisted driving, new mobility or car-sharing, and electrified powertrains and components, both Subaru and Toyota are required to conduct technological development with a sense of speed across a broader-than-ever spectrum of initiatives. Building on their collaborative ties thus far deepened, the agreement announced today represents a new area of collaboration that especially focuses on the urgent need to respond to CASE's "E" domain, or electrified powertrains and components.
In addressing vehicle electrification, due to significant variation in the energy situations of each country or region and in government policies, as well as due to resulting differences in environmental regulations, in the stages of infrastructure preparation, and in market needs for electrified vehicles, efficient and speedy development of appropriate products is a must. Furthermore, the commercialization of BEVs requires the use of large-capacity batteries, and, along with the popularization of BEVs, demands of a new dimension will be placed on battery supply. In addition, stemming from differences in how cars will be used due to maximum cruising ranges and the state of infrastructure construction, sales methods with a new approach will also be needed. These and other issues present a growing number of challenges related to costs, supply, and ways of selling.
To respond with a sense of speed to the diversifying needs of these markets and to multiple challenges, both Subaru and Toyota believe that it is necessary to pursue a business model that goes beyond convention, crossing over industrial boundaries together with various types of other entities that share their aspirations. As a first step in this direction, while accelerating productization by bringing together technologies that represent each company's strengths and cooperating where possible, the two companies will jointly develop a BEV-dedicated platform. The platform will be developed in a way that will make it broadly applicable to multiple vehicle types, including C-segment-class and D-segment-class sedans and SUVs, as well as to efficient development of derivative vehicle models.
Note from Subaru
Following this agreement with Toyota, Subaru will now shift its existing BEV development resources to this new joint project. Within this new framework, Subaru will continue its efforts to create an attractive BEV SUV for our customers, while improving efficiencies in terms of engineering, development, purchasing, and other areas through the new joint project.
Image: A BEV-dedicated platform Toyota and Subaru will jointly develop
TOKYO -- Toyota is ramping up electric vehicle deployment plans, pulling forward its goal of selling 5.5 million electrified vehicles by five years and aiming to develop a solid-state battery by next summer as it races to meet a "sudden surge" of EV popularization.
Toyota now aims to sell some 5.5 million traditional gasoline-electric hybrids, plug-in hybrids, EVs and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2025. Nearly 1 million of them could be pure EVs.
Executive Vice President Shigeki Terashi, Toyota's r&d chief, outlined the new roadmap in a June 7 briefing about the company's EV plans. In December 2017, the company had said it wanted to sell that many electrified vehicles by 2030, five years later than the revised outlook.
Terashi added that the company wants to unveil a solid-state battery for electrified vehicles ahead of next year's Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The technology, which promises lighter, more powerful and safer batteries, could be a breakthrough in popularizing electric vehicles.
"Wanting to make an effort is not enough. You really should be able to deliver," Terashi said.
"If possible, by the time we have the Olympic games next year, we would like to make sure that a solid-state battery can be unveiled to the public," Terashi said.
Indeed, Terashi cited a "sudden surge" in their popularization for revising the EV rollout.
"Progress has surpassed the target," Terashi said. "We have entered a new age."
Emissions regulations
Toyota is ramping up its EV development plans, partly in response to increasingly stringent emissions requirements in China and Europe. It plans to start making EVs in China next year on its way to releasing as least 10 BEVs (battery-powered models) worldwide by the early 2020s.
Toyota will not be abandoning the trademark hybrid technology pioneered in the Prius. It also aims to have electrified versions of every model in the Toyota and Lexus lineups by 2025.
But EVs have taken on fresh priority. As part of the new plan, Toyota plans to introduce an ultra-compact, two-seat EV in Japan in 2020. It will have a range of 100 kilometers (62 miles).
It is also readying a new dedicated EV platform it has developed with partners.
It is dubbed e-TNGA, a play on the company's new-generation Toyota New Global Architecture modular platform that the automaker has been rolling out in recent years. The EV version is an outgrowth of EV C.A. Spirit Corp., a nine-company consortium led by Toyota to develop and share components for electric vehicles. Other members include Subaru, Mazda, Suzuki and Daihatsu.
Subaru joint development
Earlier in the week, Toyota said had agreed with Subaru to jointly develop an all-electric platform for midsize and large vehicles and jointly develop an electric crossover.
That vehicle, which will be sold separately under each brand, will debut in the early 2020s with the U.S. as a main target market, a Toyota spokesman said.
Terashi said Toyota is working with Suzuki and Daihatsu to jointly develop a compact EV.
The new platform will underpin six variations in all -- a large SUV, a medium SUV, a medium crossover, a medium minivan, a medium sedan and the compact.
Toyota displayed clay concepts of many of the six body types, with distinctive EV design. The vehicles had long wheelbases, slit-like headlamps and camera-based sideview mirrors.
Gone were the radiator grilles. The front fascia get a protruding hood for accent.
ZEV factory
To better focus on EV development, Toyota created a so-called Toyota ZEV Factory last November. It is an in-house EV product development and business planning division with 290 people that takes technology developed by EV C.A. Spirit and tailors it to the Toyota brand.
Terashi warned it could be a long time before EVs are profitable by themselves.
A quicker road to profitability, he said, would be adopting a new business model.
The idea is to not just manufacture and sell the cars, but to work with partners on wringing revenue from throughout a product's lifetime. That includes businesses in sales, leasing, sharing, peripheral services, used car sales, battery reuse and recycling.
"Once those become viable, he BEV business will become viable, even if the battery price remains quite high," Terashi said, adding that a new approach was crucial. "Unless we work on this at a very accelerated manner, we will not be able to ensure our future survival."
Toyota is ramping up its EV development plans, partly in response to increasingly stringent emissions requirements in China and Europe. It plans to start making EVs in China next year on its way to releasing as least 10 BEVs (battery-powered models) worldwide by the early 2020s.
Toyota will not be abandoning the trademark hybrid technology pioneered in the Prius. It also aims to have electrified versions of every model in the Toyota and Lexus lineups by 2025.
Just as winter weather creeps in and discussions of snow tires and black ice are top-of-mind, Toyota is announcing the addition of all-wheel-drive options to its 2020 Camry and 2021 Avalon sedans mainly as a response to modern, SUV-centric tastes.
Notably, this will be the first AWD Camry since the Camry All-Trac departed us in 1991 and the first Avalon to power all four wheels since, well, the beginning of time. The Toyotas will join a small list of mainstream sedans to offer all-wheel traction. Just off the top, the only other ones to do so are the Subaru Legacy and Nissan's latest Altima. Paired exclusively to the 2.5-liter four-cylinder models of both cars, AWD will be available on most trims of the Camry bar the bog-standard L and hotted-up TRD while the Avalon AWD can be had in either XLE or Limited trim.
Sadly, no V-6 or Hybrid models have been invited to the party. We think all-wheel-drive, 300-hp Camry and Avalon TRDs would've made for some pretty rad times and great foils to the Kia Stinger. But you know what else would've been nice? Winning the lottery.
Anywho, Toyota's upcoming AWD sedans use the engine, transmission, transfer case, and rear diff lifted from the RAV4 and a Highlander propeller shaft. The system can send up to 50 percent of torque to the rear axle and can, natch, revert back to full front-wheel drive during normal highway cruising for better fuel economy. Toyota says that while the system adds 165 pounds to the Camry and around the same additional weight as a V-6 adds in the Avalon, AWD has been implemented without sacrificing anything in terms of passenger room, cargo capacity, trunk floor height, or ride and handling.
Developed in and for America, the speed at which Toyota was able to implement this is a testament to the company's modular New Global Architecture's adaptability. Remarkably, neither of these sedans were originally created with AWD variants in mind.
The 2020 Toyota Camry AWD models will hit dealerships in early spring while its larger 2021 Avalon brother will be available next fall.
it's all talk... 
they have been talking for years.
Toyota doubts widespread acceptance of plug-in hybrids
Eiji Toyoda, who helped steer Toyota's rise, dies at 100
The 3.3-mile road course opened last week as the first section of a technical center that will eventually encompass a high-speed test track and specialized courses replicating roads from around the world. It will also include new centers for vehicle development.
