| 777 | Date: Thursday, 28 Oct 2010, 12.54 | Message # 1 |
|
Like Sharing
Group: User
User ID: 777
Joined: 18 Oct 2010
Messages: 1035
| Toyota will reveal another member of the Prius family in January at the Detroit auto show. It will be completely new and different in size from the current model.
Toyota has said it plans to expand the Prius and market the name as a sub-brand that stands for environmental prowess. The company is also developing a plug-in electric version of the current model.
Toyota senior vice president of automotive operations Don Esmond announced the auto-show plans on Thursday afternoon at a luncheon in downtown Detroit. He declined to reveal more specifics about the Prius variant.
“It's an all-new model,” he said.
Prefacing the new Prius model, Toyota will also unveil an electric RAV4 later this year at the Los Angeles auto show. Toyota is testing the small ute to determine range and customers' needs. It will be sold starting in 2012.
Additionally, the company is hard at work on a zero-emissions hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicle that will debut by 2015. Esmond said “several” battery-electric vehicles are also on the way in the coming years, as well as “a few other surprises.”
“We have our eyes on the future as we ready a new group of environmental vehicles for tomorrow,” he said.
Still, Toyota remains focused on hybrids as the pillar of its green-car approach. Esmond says three or four hybrids on U.S. roads are made by Toyota, and one in two is a Prius.
“Hybrid technology serves as a core to our environmental approach,” he said.
Products are critical for the company as it looks to reshine its image in the wake of its massive recalls in the last year. The Toyota division will get seven new or updated vehicles in 2011, and Lexus will feature the launch of the LFA supercar and the CT 200h. Scion is also being fortified with the redone tC, which launches this fall.
Meanwhile, Toyota is recovering from the historic recalls and has served more than 5 million claims. It's also taking dramatic steps to ensure safety and quality, Esmond said, including adding a chief safety officer, expanding the product cycle by four weeks and opening seven field safety offices in North America. It will also make brake-override systems standard in vehicles and has created “smart teams” of 200 engineers to focus on unintended-acceleration claims.
“Make no mistake, the rules have changed, and all automakers are being held to higher standards than ever before,” Esmond said.
| HTML code to this post |
|
| BB code to this post |
|
| Direct link to this post |
|
|
| |
| |
Member: 5095 
Forum: 2322
News: 27
Blog: 16
Downloads: 18
Comments: 5